The Mark of Athena
by MysteriousSherlock
Summary: My idea of what should happen during 'The Mark of Athena'. The Argo II sets off on its mission to close the doors of death and stop Gaia, meeting new people along the way. The Argonauts are about to realise that this world is stranger than they realise and has more forces within it than they could ever imagine...
1. The Landing of the Argo II

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, The Heroes of Olympus or The Kane Chronicles. They rightfully belong to Rick Riordan.**

**Important Authors note:**

**Rick Riordan has already said that, although they exist at the same time and in the same universe, The Kane Chronicles and Percy Jackson story lines will not cross. I feel however that if they were to cross, it would create an amazing storyline. Therefore, this story is my opinion of what should happen in the third Heroes of Olympus book, The Mark of Athena. The only characters in this Fan fiction that I have created are Sherlock and her semi-mortal family members. My skills as an author are not all that good, but I hope you will enjoy reading this story.**

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Chapter 1-The landing of the Argo II

Percy's POV

We watched as the ship made it's descent. It hovered a few feet off the ground, while a rope ladder was lowered and the first of its passengers began to climb down. He had blonde hair from what I could see, and judging by Reyna's face, which had gone extremely pale, this was Jason Grace. He was followed by the guy from the video-scroll-thing, a girl with brown, choppy hair, who I assumed was Piper, the girl who had called the second guy the 'repair boy' in the video, my old friends Grover the satyr, Rachel and...

My heart skipped a beat. There she was—curly blonde hair, beautiful grey eyes that I could see even from here—_Annabeth_.

Jason took a step forward and placed his weapon on the ground in front of him. The others did the same.

"We come in peace—we mean you no harm. For those of you who don't already know, I am Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, praetor..." he looked at my purple cloak and corrected himself, "EX-praetor of the twelfth legion, _Fulminata_. We have come from Camp Half Blood, the Greek equivalent of Camp Jupiter, to join with you in a quest to stop Gaia."

I stepped forward.

"Um...talking of the praetor business, if you want, I can step down-"

He shook his head.

"If the legion elected you as praetor, then it is rightfully your role. I'm not going object." he looked at Reyna, "I think we should probably discuss the quest elsewhere, is the senate house still in tact?" he asked, looking at the destruction caused by yesterday's battle.

Reyna nodded. "It is," she turned to the Romans, "Senators, Hazel, Frank, if you would like to make your way back to the senate house. The rest of you, get back to whatever you were doing."

The crowd dispersed, leaving me, Hazel, Frank and the visitors from Camp Half Blood standing there. I stared at Annabeth, unsure what to do, and then somehow we were hugging each other tightly.

"I missed you so much Percy," she sobbed.

"I missed you too, wise girl." I told her. We pulled apart.

"How much do you remember?" she asked.

"Everything. But I never forgot _you_."

She smiled and kissed me.

"Um...guys?" Jason said, "I think we're needed at the senate house."

We broke apart, and exchanged a look that said _later_.

We walked to the senate house, and I took my place next to Reyna.

"I think it would be a good idea of we all introduced each other." she said.

A few of the senators mumbled their names. Then Annabeth stood.

"I am Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, official architect of Olympus, I carried the Titan's curse and survived, I navigated the Labyrinth, I helped return Zeus's master bolt, I helped retrieve the golden fleece and I am a hero of Olympus. I believe you all know Jason Grace. This is Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite the goddess of beauty and love, charmspeaker, she helped free the goddess Hera from her cage. This is Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus the god of the forge, he helped free the goddess Hera from her cage, and he designed and built the Argo II."

I looked at Hazel. She looked pale, and I remembered what she had said the guy from her past had been called-Sammy _Valdez_. Was it possible that the two were related?

"Annabeth, I think you forgot something." Leo said, grinning. He held out his hand in front of him, and flames danced across his palm.

"And Leo can control fire." Annabeth sighed, before muttering "_Show off_".

"Hey!" Leo protested.

Annabeth then proceeded to introducing Grover, and then, after receiving a few strange looks when she told them he was a satyr, she then explained to the Senators the role of satyrs at camp. I wasn't paying much attention to her explanation though; I was too busy looking concernedly at Frank, who had gone pale. I couldn't blame him—he had just been told that one of the people going on the quest with us, assuming we were going on the quest, could potentially set fire to his already too short for comfort lifeline.

Annabeth had finished introducing Grover and Rachel. We then started to talk about the quest.

"Me, Annabeth, Leo and Piper are four of the seven demigods. The only question is who are the other three?" Jason said.

"I'll go," me, Frank and Hazel all said at once.

Octavian, who had been keeping unusually quiet, looked at us suspiciously.

"Really," he said disbelievingly, "and why would three demigods like yourselves be so keen to go on a quest that you may never return from?"

We exchanged looks. "The three of us have been told to go on this quest by both Her—I mean Juno, and Thanatos."

"And what of the harpy? And the Cyclops? Where will they go?"

I looked nervously at Hazel and Frank who looked back at me, their expressions equally worried. He couldn't know that Ella had read the sbylline books, could he?

"They can come with us. I'm sure they'd both be willing." I told him.

"Very well. Say they go with you. What's to say that the seven of you will be able to get along? What's to say that you won't be at each other's throats all the time?"

It was Rachel who answered him.

"We've got along fine with Jason, and you've got along well with Percy. What's to say that it can't happen again?"

"That was twice, and both times we were each unaware of the other's existence. Now you know and understand that you should be enemies, what's to say you won't hate each other?"

"Tell me Octavian, if you discovered that your best friend or your brother was a Greek, would you hate him?" Jason asked.

Octavian smiled. "My reaction to the Greeks is not relevant. What is relevant are _your_ reactions."

I decided to take a great risk. "So be it," I said shrugging, "I will prove to you that just because some of us are Greek and some of us are Roman, we do not have to hate each other."

I looked around the senate house. Every eye in the room was staring at me. Under normal circumstances, this would have been unnerving, but right now, this was exactly what I needed—I needed everyone's attention.

"What if I were to tell you that just over a year ago, unknown to every other demigod in the world, one Greek demigod had found Camp Jupiter? That nobody here knew he was Greek, and nobody at Camp Half Blood knew what he'd found or noticed his absences because he never stayed in one place long enough for anyone there to get to know him properly?"

"Percy, what are you trying to suggest?" Annabeth asked, confused. Wow, I'd managed to confuse Annabeth. That was something I'd never done before.

Hazel gasped, hand over her mouth. "Oh my gods...he said that he knew you, but it was best if you remembered everything on your own. He...he KNEW you, which means..."

"The boy you know as Nico di Angelo, Ambassador of Pluto, is really the son of Hades." I finished for her.

There was silence in the senate house as the fact sank in. Then Jason said,

"The Nico you said was looking for Percy...that was Nico di Angelo?" he asked Annabeth. She nodded, speechless.

"The point I'm trying to make," I continued, "is Nico was fully aware of the fact that historically, Romans and Greeks hate each other. Yet he didn't care. So why should we?"

Many of the senators nodded their heads in agreement.

"So be it," Reyna announced, "Percy, Jason, Piper, Leo, Annabeth, Rachel, Hazel, Frank, Grover the Fau—I mean Satyr, Ella the Harpy and Tyson the Cyclopes will set out on this quest. You will stop for supplies at somewhere like...I don't know, erm, somewhere in _Virginia_. I think that is all we need to discuss for now."

We left the senate house. Me, Hazel and Frank quickly went to pack, Jason went to grab a couple of his things from before Hera kidnapped him, and we all met back at the Argo II. We said our goodbyes, and we set off for Virginia...

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**So what do you think? This is my first chapter; the next one will be posted this evening. In the meantime, can any of you guess why I decided they would stop in Virginia for supplies? Imaginary cookies to those who can guess!**


	2. Sherlock

**Do I look like Rick Riordan? Oh, right you don't actually ****_know_**** what I look like. I don't own Percy Jackson or the Kane Chronicles, I only Own Sherlock, her semi-mortal relatives and the plot. So if you haven't already guessed from the name of the chapter, guess whom you're going to be meeting? Sherlock, who I mentioned when saying what I owned in the previous chapter. By the way, Sherlock is not meant to resemble me in any shape or form. I came up with the name for Sherlock ****_before_**** I came up with my own username. So now you get to find out who he or she is...Yay!**

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Chapter 2-Sherlock

Percy's POV

We looked around at the section of the city we'd landed in.

"Ok guys," I said, "let's split up and see what we can find round here. We'll meet back here in an hour."

We split up and walked in opposite directions. I hadn't walked far when I came across a school and a sports hall. Kids were running out of the sports hall, screaming and yelling things about an escaped bull. I took riptide out of my pocket and ran into the building to see what the commotion was about.

There were several doors, two looked like they led into changing rooms, the third had 'gymnasium' written on it in bold letters. I could hear a series of crashing noises coming from the other side of the door.

I ran through the doors in time to see a monster charging at a girl who was backed against a wall. The girl looked about sixteen, and looked completely calm, which I have to say was pretty impressive considering the circumstances. She had blonde hair, dark eyes that were almost black, and was wearing dark blue jeans, purple converses, a black denim jacket, black gloves and a black top.

The monster was the Minotaur. Half-man, half-bull and completely terrifying. On top of all that, it was about to skewer the girl with its horns.

At the last minute, she turned and jumped at the wall, and scrambled up it like a gecko. I mean that literally. Her hands seemed to stick to the wall. She reached a ledge and clambered onto it.

The Minotaur shook it's fists at her and started tearing at the wall. I decided to distract it.

"Hey! Ground beef!" I yelled at it, uncapping riptide, "Remember me?"

Unfortunately it did, and I hadn't thought about the fact that I had nowhere to run. It charged at me, it's hands reached out ready to grab me if I tried to run. I was cornered.

I heard a voice above me yell something that sounded like _"Mia!"_, and the girl swooped over my head, holding a sword. It took me a second to realize that her converses were actually flying shoes. She flew straight at the Minotaur and in one swift movement drove the sword through its head. The Minotaur burst apart into a pile of sand.

The girl landed next to its remains and stared at the blood-splattered sword.

"Thanks." I said.

"No problem," she replied, "what was that, exactly?"

"A minotaur."

"As in Greek myths."

I looked upwards, hoping she hadn't upset any of the gods. "They're not myths. They're real. And," I looked at her. How exactly was I meant to explain it "I think you're a demigod."

"You're trying to tell me my mom is a Goddess?"

"Not necessarily. Could be your dad."

"My dad? Please. He may be a crazy scientist, but he's definitely not a god."

"Okay, you have a point there."

We stood in silence, staring at the Minotaur's remains.

"I'm Percy, by the way. Percy Jackson."

"Nice to meet you Percy."

"What's your name?"

"Sherlock, to most people. My real name is Emily Holmes, but only my dad calls me that."

The name took me by surprise. It didn't suit her at all.

"Oh," I said, "Sorry, I don't mean any offense, but you don't look like an Emily."

She laughed.

"That's what a friend of mine told me when we met. We were six. She called me Sherlock, after the great detective, because she thought I was clever. After that, the name stuck. I've been officially known as Sherlock ever since. It's even on the school registers. Barely anyone knows my real name these days."

"Where is she now?" I asked.

"Gone. I don't know where. She ran away from home when we were seven. I never saw her again. It wasn't long before..." she trailed off. "Oh...damn it."

She quickly capped her sword.

Looking at where she was looking, I saw a vaguely familiar figure. It was a mortal. I capped riptide and tried to act normal.

"Ahh...Miss Holmes," He said in a French accent, "could you please tell me what has been going on here?"

"Er...Escaped bull, sir," she said, "It went that way," she pointed towards a gaping hole in the wall, presumably where the Minotaur had got in. She shot a quick glance at me while he wasn't looking, and mouthed 'headmaster'.

"Ahh. I see," he turned to me. "Perseus Jackson." He pronounced the 'J' as you might pronounce the 'J' in 'Jacques'. "It's been a long time. How's Nico? I heard he ran into a few people at the doors of death."

"Sir?" Sherlock asked, clearly confused, "Are you feeling okay?"

"Oh yes, I feel perfectly fine. In fact, I feel marvelous." He turned to me again. "Remember me, Perseus Jackson?"

Unfortunately, I did.

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**Mwa ha ha ha ha! And this week's chapter stops HERE. I love writing cliffhangers! Imaginary cookies to those who can guess who/what he is (please write it in a review-I'm not telepathic)! Please could people start writing reviews (thank you to those who did)?**


	3. The Return of Dr Thorn

**I am not Rick Riordan, therefore I don't own anything apart from Sherlock, her semi-mortal relatives and the plot.**

**Well done you guys!**

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Chapter 3-The return of Dr Thorn

Percy's POV

"Dr. Thorn," I said, "You should be in the depths of Tartarus."

"Um...Do you two know each other?" Sherlock asked "and what has Tartar-Sauce got to do with any of this?"

"_Tartarus_ is not a matter to be taken lightly, my girl. And yes, you could say we know each other. In fact, you could go as far to say that we're enemies."

Now it was my turn to turn to her while he was distracted, and mouth 'monster'. She nodded, and then turned to Dr Thorn.

"Well," she said "I'm going to be late for my next class, so I really ought to be going. Percy?"

"Yeah, me too," I said taking the hint, "Well, it was nice talking to you, but I'm kind of in a hurry. Sorry."

I turned to leave, but as I did so, a black projectile flew through the air at me, pinning me to the wall by my shirt. I attempted to pull it out the wall, but unfortunately it was stuck.

I turned to look at Sherlock. She had uncapped her sword, and she was facing Dr Thorn. His tail had formed behind him, but he hadn't completely transformed. Why, I didn't know, and I wasn't too keen to find out.

He smiled. It wasn't a friendly smile, it was creepier than that, and something gave me the idea that he was enjoying the idea of playing 'murder the demigod'. Instead, he spoke;

"How's your sister, Sherlock?"

She gripped her sword tightly.

"What do you know about that?" she demanded.

She never got an answer. Dr Thorn made his full transformation and batted at her with his tail. She somehow got a hold on it with one hand, and using her sword, she sliced off his tail. He yelled in pain as his tail disintegrated. She dropped to the floor and ran straight at him, jumping onto his back.

Major flashback: Annabeth jumping onto his back and attacking him with her knife. Dr Thorn and Annabeth falling off a cliff.

Sherlock, however, didn't fall off a cliff though. Instead, she slipped and almost fell off his back. Somehow she managed to hang on with one hand and cling on as he tried to shake her off.

She was a good fighter, but she hadn't had any training, and she was going to need some help. Unfortunately, I was pinned to a wall, and the others had no idea of where we were.

It was only then that I remembered about the empathy link between Grover and me. 'GROVER!' I thought-yelled, 'A bit of help here please? That would be really great!'

I struggled to try and break free of the wall. Still stuck, and no way would I be getting free anytime soon without help.

A loud crash drew my attention back to Sherlock and Dr Thorn. Apparently Dr Thorn had managed to shake her off his back. From what I could see, she had been flung through the air and had crashed straight into some shelves in a nearby store cupboard that had been left open. The whole shelving unit had crashed down on top of her, trapping her underneath it. It was a miracle she was still conscious.

Dr Thorn, realizing that his prey was trapped with nowhere to run, walked slowly towards her, obviously in no hurry to kill her. He stopped, apparently realizing that he no longer had a tail to kill her with. He transformed back into his 'mortal' form and picked up her sword.

He smiled his 'I'm-looking-forward-to-killing-you' smile and said, "Looks like you'll never see young Jennifer again."

She struggled, trying to break free of the heavy shelves and sports equipment.

"Why don't you tell me what you know? So I can die happy, you know?"

She was trying to buy time, but what for, I didn't know. Then I realized that there was a loud drone that was gradually getting louder. It sounded like...an engine? The Argo II! It must be!

'Hurry up guys...' I thought, as Dr Thorn raised the sword. I kept trying to pull the projectile out of the wall, but something was still holding it in place.

Then there was a loud crash as the Argo II crashed straight through the side of the building. Dr Thorn was hit by a large price of debris and burst into dust.

Annabeth was the first to jump off the side of the boat. She saw me pinned to the wall, and ran over to help me.

"What on earth did you get yourself into this time, seaweed-brain?" she said as she attempted to pull the projectile out the wall. After a couple of seconds, she seemed to realize it was stuck, and she got out her knife. Before I could object, she cut through my shirt.

"Hey, I liked this shirt!" I said.

"It was good as ruined anyway. Besides aren't you going to thank me for saving you?"

I kissed her and said, "Thanks. And it's good to see you, Annabeth."

"Annabeth?"

Oops. I'd forgotten about Sherlock. Annabeth turned and jogged over to her.

"Sherlock? Is...Is that you?"

"Yeah. It's been a long time."

"Er...Do you guys know each other?" I asked.

"Well, you know that friend I mentioned? The one who first called me Sherlock..."

"That was you, Annabeth?" I said.

They both nodded. I then remembered that Sherlock was still trapped under the rubble. I pointed this out and me, Annabeth and the others, who had just jumped down from the ship, freed her.

She dusted herself off and then said, "So what happens now?"

"I guess you came with us." I replied.

She nodded. "I think we should pay my dad a short visit before I do though. To let him know where I'm going and to ask him a few questions about my mom. If that's okay, of course. It's only a few blocks away."

I nodded. "That's a good idea."

We climbed onto the Argo II and set off to visit Sherlock's father. This quest was already not going according to plan. At this rate, we would end up going to Egypt instead of Greece.

I seriously hoped we didn't though.

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**Have you guessed who Sherlock's mother is yet? Imaginary cookies to the people who write who they think it is in a review and guess correctly!**


	4. Sherlock's Parents

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, The Heroes of Olympus or The Kane Chronicles. They rightfully belong to Rick Riordan. I only own Sherlock and her semi-mortal relatives.**

**So...in this chapter you will be meeting Sherlock's father and finding out who her mother is!**

**Also, please can you guys start reviewing? I want to know what you think!**

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Chapter 4-Sherlock's parents

Percy's POV

We boarded the _Argo II_ quickly, on the grounds that we really didn't want to be here when the police arrived, and have to explain to them why a flying ship had just crashed into the side of the sports hall.

A couple of minutes later we were standing on the doorstep of a large house waiting for Sherlock's father to answer the door. When he did, he took me by surprise. I'd been expecting a crazy looking guy with frizzy hair, wearing a white lab coat. The only one of those things that accurately described Sherlock's father was the lab coat. He had dark eyes, like Sherlock, black, neatly cut hair and a kindly expression. Not exactly the mad scientist I'd been expecting.

"Emily," he said, concerned, "you're home early. You didn't have to use the pen that I gave you, did you?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"You'd better all come in then."

_'Pen?'_ Annabeth mouthed at her.

_'Sword._' she mouthed back.

"He never actually told me what it was. He just said that I could only uncap it during an emergency," she muttered under her breath.

We walked through into the house. It was very tidy, and very orderly. There were plaques on some of the doors that said things like 'machine room' and 'labs 1&2'. He led us through a door that was labeled as 'dining room' to reveal a room with a large wooden table with lots of chairs round it.

"Please, sit down." he said.

He seemed like a kind man, he was also very polite. But there was something else about him, something almost...sad.

"I'm guessing you know everything now." he said to Sherlock.

"Yeah...apart from one thing."

"Who your mother is."

"Yeah."

"Before I say anything, what happened? Who or what came after you?"

"Err...Percy? Do you know what they were? I'm no real expert with Greek and Roman myths."

Sherlock's father looked at me.

"I've heard about you," he said, "apparently you saved Olympus. I'm impressed."

"Thanks Dr. Holmes." I said.

"Please, call me Paton."

"Sorry, err, Paton."

"That's quite all right. Now about those monsters…"

"The Minotaur and a manticore," I said, "the manticore was disguised as Sherlock's headmaster."

"Dr Thorn."

"Yes," Sherlock said, "If it wasn't for Percy, Annabeth and their friends here, I'd probably be dead."

_"Annabeth?"_ He turned to her. "Annabeth _Chase_?"

"Yeah."

"Goodness, I didn't recognize you. It certainly has been a long time."

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"Who is my mom?"

There was a long pause before he finally said "Athena." he paused for a second, before asking, "So where are you all going?"

"To Greece, to try and stop Gaia." I replied.

"Gaia?" he looked disturbed at the name.

"Yes."

The others started chatting amongst themselves. Sherlock looked at her father.

"Was it her?" she asked quietly, so quietly I only just caught what she said. He nodded, and then passed her a small envelope from his pocket. "I developed it recently. It's what she might look like now. If you find her-" he said just as quietly.

She nodded. "If I find Jenny, I'll tell you."

She slipped the envelope into her pocket as though nothing had happened. Nobody else had noticed the exchange because they were busy talking.

"Well, we really must be going," I said, "It's been nice talking to you Paton."

"Thank you for helping my daughter," he said, "I owe a lot to you. All of you."

After a few more goodbyes we left the house and boarded the ship. After we had taken flight, we all sat down round a large wooden table in a room that was rather like Sherlock's dining room and discussed various things. After a few hours, Jason had a thought.

"You guys do realize there's only meant to be seven half bloods on this trip?" Jason pointed out.

_'Damn it'_ I thought. Then, something occurred to me.

"Hang on," I said, "the prophecy said _'Seven half-bloods shall_ answer _the call.'_ It never said anything about us picking up people along the way."

_'Seven half-bloods shall_ _answer_ _the call.'_ Sherlock said, confused.

"It's the latest great prophecy." Piper explained.

Then Rachel added, "The full thing is;

_Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,_

_To storm or firethe world must fall,_

_An oath to keep with a final breath,_

_And foes bear arms to the doors of death._"

Ella, who had been keeping quiet, then said;

_"Wisdom's daughter walks alone,_

_The mark of Athena burns through Rome"_

Everyone stared at her.

"What did she just say?" Leo asked.

"I think it's part of our prophecy for this quest." Frank said."

"Ella is an oracle? Nobody told me that!" Grover complained.

"That's because she isn't an oracle," Hazel explained, "We think she's read the remains of the Sibylline books. And memorized what she saw. That's why we insisted on bringing her along. If Octavian knew, not even Jupiter knows what he'd do. I don't think any of us want to find out."

"Octavian?" Sherlock asked.

"Annoying, power-hungry, black-mailing..." Frank started to say, before Annabeth cut him off.

"Their camp's augur." Annabeth said.

"And he doesn't trust Greeks." Leo cut in,

"Or Satyrs," Grover added,

"Or Cyclopes," I added,

"Or Daddy!" Tyson added.

"Or basically anyone or anything." Jason summed up.

Rachel, who had been very quiet for the past few minutes suddenly sat bolt upright. We all turned to look at her. Her eyes were glowing green and green smoke was swirling round her...

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**I did warn you! I ****_love_**** writing cliffhangers! I'm trying to get this story over and done with as quickly as possible, but I felt that this chapter was a bit too long. So I thought, ****_'why not chop it in half and leave it as a cliffhanger?'_**


	5. The Prophecy

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, The Heroes of Olympus or The Kane Chronicles. They rightfully belong to Rick Riordan. I only own Sherlock and her semi-mortal relatives.**

**Sorry about that cliffhanger. Actually, I'm not really that sorry, but I'll say sorry anyway. So, you now ****_actually_**** get to hear the prophecy!**

**Also, thank you _MagentaPen_ for the advice-I'll try not to fall into that trap! You're right about Leo-I sometimes forget that he isn't just the guy who's always trying to make people laugh, and that also has the more serious side to him as well. About Dr Thorn...I think you're right there as well. I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking there-I wrote this chapter a long time ago, so I can't remember all of my reasonings. I'll try to make my chapters a bit longer, but at the moment I'm trying to post as many chapters as possible before the Mark of Athena comes out next week, so this will be quite difficult. But thanks again for the advice!**

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Chapter 5-The Prophecy

Percy's POV

"Umm...I know this is a really dumb question...but is she okay?" Hazel asked.

"Yeah," I answered, "It's normal for an oracle.

Rachel spoke;

_"Wisdom's daughter walks alone,_

_The mark of Athena burns through Rome,_

_Two worlds shall meet at civilization's heart,_

_From flesh to pottery, ghost's daughter shall depart."_

She then slumped back in her chair. We all stared in silence for a couple of minutes until she finally spoke again.

"Okay, so what did I say this time?"

After we repeated the prophecy to her she looked troubled.

"Well the first two lines, we just heard from Ella." she said, "But the other two lines make no sense."

"Especially the _'Flesh to pottery' _part." Grover said.

"The _'ghost's daughter'_ part makes some sense." Frank said.

"How?" Piper asked.

"Well, Hazel and her mom died years ago, making them, well, dead. So her mom is still wondering around the underworld. So you could say that she's a ghost, therefore making Hazel the daughter of a ghost."

"Yes, but even if that is what it means, where am I departing to?" Hazel pointed out, going pale, "The underworld maybe?"

There was an uncomfortable silence. Then Annabeth said, "The other question is what the two 'worlds' are and where they are meeting."

"Well the _'civilization's heart'_ part is obvious," Sherlock said, "That's got to be somewhere in America. My dad once said something about people who believed in Greek gods. He said that they believe that the gods move around with 'the flame of the west'. He said that they're always where the flame burns brightest, which right now is in America."

"I remember Chiron telling me something about that when I first got to camp." I said.

"So would that mean that the heart of civilization is in America?" Jason asked.

"Yes, so I'm guessing it's the Empire State Building" Annabeth said.

"Why the Empire State Building?" Leo asked.

"Because Mount Olympus is on top of it. Just take the elevator to the six-hundredth floor." Grover replied.

We sat in silence for a while. Hazel turned to Leo and said,

"I've been meaning to ask this for a while now, but are you related to a man named Sammy Valdez?"

He looked at her in silence for a minute and then answered, "I never met him, but yeah, my mom mentioned him a few times before she…sorry, err, I mean yes, he was my great grandfather. Why do you ask?"

She looked uncomfortable. "I knew him," she answered, "you look just like him. He was the only friend I had back then." The way she said it made me wonder if he'd been a bit more than a friend.

There was a very awkward silence. Then Leo got up and said, "I'm just going to go and check on the engines. Check everything's running smoothly, you know."

We watched him leave. Then Sherlock asked, "Are there any stories that have something to do with pottery?"

"Well I've heard a couple of times that Pandora was originally made of clay before Zeus gave her life," Annabeth said, "but I don't get what that has to do with Hazel, or ghosts."

"Pandora will be dead by now, so maybe she's the ghost." Piper said.

"Maybe..." Annabeth said.

Leo's voice crackled through the hidden speakers.

"Hello everybody, this is your captain, Leo Valdez speaking. It is now ten o-clock, and giving the fact that anything could happen over the next few days, I would like to ask you all to proceed to your quarters for lights out. Thank you for your attention, and I hope you are enjoying your time aboard the Argo II. That will be all. Goodnight."

"He's _still_ insisting on calling himself captain." Piper muttered as everyone got up and prepared to leave the room.

We all went to bed.

* * *

**I have another mystery for you to solve...**

**A few of you may have noticed the mention of a girl called Jenifer/Jenny in the past couple of chapters. Imaginary cookies to all those who can guess who she is correctly. All will be revealed next chapter...**


	6. Sherlock's Secret

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, The Heroes of Olympus or The Kane Chronicles. They rightfully belong to Rick Riordan. I do, however, own Sherlock and her semi-mortal relatives.**

**And now…the mystery is unraveled. Who is Jennifer? Well, you're about to find out…**

**And in answer to your PM, boucaud .kids****, I'm afraid to say that Jenny is not Jaz, although that ****_is_**** an excellent idea. I'll give you imaginary cookies anyway, in reward for being the first (and only) person to guess the answer to one of the questions I have asked- (::) (::) (::) Also, I apologise for your name not being here before-I just ****discovered when I uploaded one of my later chapters that whenever I try typing your pen name, whenever I save a chapter _it __disappears!_ I have no idea why!**

**Also, ****_I am sooooooo excited! The _****real****_ Mark of Athena is coming out tomorrow! Of course, according to Amazon, I'm not due to get it until Thursday (why Hylla, why?), but it's still exciting. Although I have to say that I am quite depressed right now-some people had it last _****Friday****_! What the Hades? Of course there's also the many different theories going round…there's the one about Sammy Valdez being Leo's grandfather, although I have literally just had this thought-what if Sammy went to Elysium and chose to be reborn? Anyways, there's one that a friend of mine found-_**

**_"In the Sea of Monsters, Chiron and Annabeth had this exchange:_**

**_Chiron- "Swear you will do your best to keep Percy from danger. Swear upon the River Styx."_**

**_Annabeth: "I- I swear it upon the River Styx."_**

**_And it was never ever mentioned again. But NOW we've got this prophecy line,_**

**_'An oath to keep with a final breath'. "_**

**_AHHHHHHH! ANNABETH _****DON'T DIE!**

**_Anyways…_**

**_There's also something that Rick posted a while back-_**

**_"I got teary-eyed when I wrote one scene in Mark of Athena, and no, I can't tell you what it was. Yes, I know that's mean."_**

**_And then there's his 'not cliffhangers'._**

**_(Type this into YouTube and watch the video-it will explain._**

**_RANDOM THOUGHT: RICK RIORDAN & NOT-CLIFFHANGERS & TROLLING)_**

* * *

Chapter 6-Sherlock's secret

Percy's POV

I fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed. Thankfully no dreams came to haunt me.

I woke to the sound of soft footsteps outside my door, as though someone was trying not to wake anyone up (and failing). I looked at the time. It was one o clock in the morning. Who would be awake at this time in the morning? I decided to go and find out.

I tiptoed across the room and quietly opened the door. There was no one in the corridor, but I could now hear the sound of footsteps coming from above me.

I walked silently up the stairs, down another corridor, and up another set of stairs, until I was on the top deck. It was dark, but the deck was lit, and far, far below us were the lights of a city. It was a beautiful view.

I looked around to see a figure standing on the deck, looking across the sky. It was Sherlock.

She took out of her pocket a small envelope. It was the one her father had given her. She opened it up, and took out a photo of a girl with curly blonde hair and stormy grey eyes.

"Who is she?" I asked.

She spun round, reaching into the lining of her jacket and pulling out her pen. When she realized it was me, she relaxed and put it back into her pocket.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I apologized.

"No, it's okay. I guess I owe you an explanation."

She handed me the photograph, and now that I could see the photo more clearly, I could see that it was just the girls face on a white background.

"She's my sister," Sherlock told me, "Or at least, what she might look like."

"What do you mean? Haven't you ever seen her?"

"Only once." she said, turning to look over the side of the deck. As she did, something around her neck glinted in the light of one of the lamps. I hadn't noticed it before, but she was wearing a small silver pendant that was shaped like an owl.

"What happened?" I asked, ignoring the necklace, and walking over to stand next to her, trying to forget the fact that I was in Zeus' domain, so standing so close to the edge of the deck, where he could very easily send a strong wind to blow me over the side was a bad idea. She sighed and then started to tell the story.

"It was June twenty-eighth, not long after Annabeth ran away. The doorbell rang, and I went to answer it. When I opened it, I saw a bundle floating down towards me and into my arms. When I looked down into the bundle, I realized it was a baby girl. You can imagine my surprise, especially when I took her to my father and told him what happened, and he told me that she was my sister. He told me that I could name her, so I called her Jenny, short for Jennifer Holmes."

She fiddled absent-mindedly with the pendant. She looked so sad, and I remembered the vague sadness Dr Holmes' eyes when we first met him. It was the same sadness, and I had a feeling that this story was not going to have a happy ending

"We were so happy. My dad took a picture, then he sent me to print it off." She frowned. "I can't remember what happened next. The next thing I remember is being in my room, my dad rushing in and hugging me, saying 'Thank the gods they haven't taken you too!'

"They took Jenny. He would never tell me who, just that they took her away. Of course, now I know it was Gaia. I haven't seen Jenny since."

She hung her head. A tear dropped over the side of the boat. I put an arm round her to comfort her.

"We'll find her," I told her, "I promise."

"How?" she asked looking up at me, "How can we have any luck in finding her? My dad's spent nine years researching and trying to track her down. How can we have any better chances?"

"I don't know," I admitted, "but you're not the only one who's looking for someone. We're looking for a friend of mine, Nico de Angelo. I'm not going to stop looking until I find him."

"You two must be really close friends," she said.

"I'd do it for any friend. Personally, I'm going to kill him as soon as I find him, not literally, for reasons I won't explain right now, but, also I guess I owe him as well. Years ago, there was this quest. Five people were meant to go, including Nico's sister, Bianca. Nico and Bianca had only just arrived at camp, and they hadn't received much training, if any. But then, there was a change in plan. One girl couldn't go, so both Nico and me were planning on following them. Me, well, the quest was to rescue the goddess Artemis who was in chains. I wanted to go to save Annabeth, who was being held captive at the same place. Nico didn't want to be left behind by his sister. I told him that he was untrained, so it would be better if I went and he stayed. I promised him that I would protect Bianca for him. She died on that quest."

"I'm so sorry," she said.

"It's okay," I said, "He kind of hated my guts after that. Well, for a while. We reached an understanding after a few months, and now we get on okay. Well, as well as we _can_ get along, when we're both sons of one of the big three."

"Who's his dad then?" she asked.

"Hades," I answered, "god of the dead and the underworld."

"Oh..."

We stood in silence for a while. Then she said

"Back in the sports hall, Dr Thorn said he'd been caught wandering around the doors of death. And they're mentioned in that prophecy. What are the doors of death? And who are the foes who will bear arms to them?"

"The doors of death are kind of like an entrance to the underworld. Nico was trying to find them, when he got caught. Our mission on this ship is, eventually, to try and find them. And as for the foes...well, long story short, there are two camps for half bloods. Camp Half-Blood, and Camp Jupiter. Camp Half-Blood is where the kids of Greek gods go; Camp Jupiter is where the kids of Roman gods go. And, like the ancient Greeks and Romans, we were enemies. But a while back, after we caused the American civil war, the gods decided it would be better if we were separated. So they made us forget. But recently, Hera realized that we would need to join forces, so she took Jason and me, wiped our memories of most things and sent us each to the other camp so that we could build our trust of each other. While I was in Camp Jupiter, I met Nico again. That's why I seriously want to murder Nico. He knew about both camps, he knew who I was, and he didn't tell me a damn thing! He even denied knowing me!"

"It's probably a good thing, by that time he probably knew all about Hera's plan." Sherlock pointed out.

"I know, it's just…"

"Yeah. I know."

We stood in silence.

"We should probably get some sleep," I said, "Who knows what could happen tomorrow."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

We walked back to our rooms and said goodnight.

* * *

**So there you are! Jenny is Sherlock's younger sister! Also, the next chapter is going to be in someone else's POV! Imaginary cookies to those who can guess who!**

**And an update! Amazon has changed its mind (thank you Hylla)! It now thinks MoA will arrive tomorrow! I'm so excited!**


	7. Imprisoned

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, The Heroes of Olympus or The Kane Chronicles. They rightfully belong to Rick Riordan. I do, however, own Sherlock, her father and her sister Jenny.**

**Hello again! And this chapter is going to be in the POV of…Nico de Angelo! **

**And also…****_I got the Mark of Athena through the post today! I am soooooooo happy! _****Although unfortunately, neither of my fellow PJO crazy friends did...and we made a truce last year that we wouldn't spoil any parts of the book for each other. So I can't go annoying them with my knowledge of what's going to happen…****_or can I?_**** Mwa ha ha…**

**Actually I remember when the Lost Hero came out…I wrote the prophecy on a piece of paper and brought it to school with me, and told the more PJO obsessed of the two that it had the prophecy written on it. She was dying to get hold of it, but another one of my friends kept trying to stop me from giving it to her…then, unfortunately, our form tutor came and put the paper in the bin…oops. I know, I'm mean for doing that…actually, come to think of it, I could do that this year as well…Nah. I'm already taking the book to school with me.**

**_Anyways…_**

* * *

Chapter 7-Imprisoned

Nico's POV

I put my hands out to break my fall as the dracaenae all but threw me into the dark cell. She slammed the door behind me. I leapt to my feet walked over to the door and kicked it. How could I have been so stupid!? How could I have been stupid enough to get caught!? I was about to start banging on the door and yelling insults at the guards, when I heard a faint noise. Like a small girl crying.

"Hello?" I said, "Is someone there?"

The crying stopped. There was a pause, and then a soft, quiet voice coming from the cell next door said, "Who are you?"

"My name's Nico di Angelo. What's yours?"

"I don't know."

"How can you not know your own name?"

"I've been here for as long as I can remember. All they ever call me here is 'you' or 'girl'."

"That's terrible! You don't remember anywhere but here? I wouldn't be able to stand that!"

"You'd better get used to it. You probably won't get out of here alive. I certainly never will."

"You will. Trust me, I have friends who'll find me, and when they do, I'll make sure you come too. I promise."

"Thank you Nico. Does this make us friends?"

"I guess it does."

"I've never had a friend before. It's nice. I've been alone for so long."

Suddenly, I sensed a presence in the room. I turned around, but there was no one there. I stood up. Yes, there was definitely a presence there. Could that mean...someone could see me in their dreams? Yes! That was it! And there was only one person I knew who was likely to see me and that was…

"Percy!" I said, "If you can see me, then I'm in a secret base in the basement of a school on the outskirts of Rome!"

I sat down and prayed to all the gods that I had been correct, and that Percy _had_ seen me. I sensed the presence leave the room. I then fell asleep.

* * *

**Hey guys! Yeah, I know this was a short chapter, and I'm very sorry. But the next chapter ****_will_**** be longer. **


	8. Plans and Discussions

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, The Heroes of Olympus or The Kane Chronicles. They rightfully belong to Rick Riordan. I do, however, own Sherlock, her father and her sister Jenny.**

**Hi again!**

**This chapter's not going to include a lot of action…and it could possibly include a massive disappointment for you (or not). You may well hate me by the end of this chapter!**

**Also, we're back to Percy's POV for now. There will be a lot of POV changes in a while, but for now...bear with me please!**

**Also…what can I say…OMGs! ****_The Mark of Athena is amazing!_**** I haven't finished it yet, but I have a ****_really_**** bad feeling that someone is going to die! L**

**Unfortunately, neither of my PJO crazy friends (who actually buy the books, there are more than two who read them though) have the book yet, and thanks to a truce we made last year not to give anything away, I can't even give away ****_one tiny hint_****! Looks like tomorrow is going to be another day of emotional torture for me…**

**Also, I'm going to have to be careful…one of my other PJO crazy friends, who usually borrows the books from me, has a habit of reading the last chapter before anything else to 'add mystery'. How it adds mystery when you know how it will end, I do not know. However, today she wanted to borrow my book for a couple of minutes so she could read it. I said no, due to the time when I gave her the Lost Hero, she read the last page and then yelled ****_"Oh my God, Percy loses his memory!'_****. As you can imagine I was not at all pleased with her. However, today I ended giving her the book ****_anyway_**** as she held my flute hostage (although it took me a while, since I thought she'd ****_have_**** to give it back at some point. But when she ****_still_**** hadn't given it back and we were about to start playing, I agreed to avoid awkward questions as to why I wasn't playing).**

**Just an ordinary day at school...**

* * *

Chapter 8-Plans and Discussions

Percy's POV

I woke to the sound of Leo's voice on the loudspeaker.

"Wake up everybody! Rise and shine! This is your captain, Leo Valdez speaking. Breakfast is in half an hour in the dining room and then we will be making more discussions on our non-existent plans for this mission! Over and out."

I sat up and looked groggily for the bathroom. After I found it, I had a shower and got dressed. I was surprised to find an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt in my wardrobe.

I put it on, and went upstairs to the dining room, to see everyone else had already arrived and were eating breakfast. I sat down and helped myself to some cereal.

I noticed that Jason, along with Frank, Hazel and (strangely) Ella, were wearing purple Camp Jupiter t-shirts, while everyone else were wearing orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirts, with the exception of Rachael, who was wearing her usual paint-splattered clothes, and Sherlock, who was wearing another black t-shirt and jacket.

The two colors looked completely wrong together, as though pointing out our differences, but somehow, the strange contrast seemed to work. It was like our alliance. We shouldn't be able to work together, we shouldn't get along, but somehow, we did.

We all finished our breakfast, and we all helped wash up and tidy up. Sherlock helped Piper wash up, and from the sounds of things, they were getting on quite well. Hazel and Rachel, who were drying up, joined in the conversation, and soon they were laughing and flicking water at each other. When Annabeth, who was putting all the dishes away, came over to try and stop them, they all ganged up on her and flicked water at her. It was funny to watch. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Quit laughing and get over here and help me, Seaweed-Brain!" Annabeth yelled at me. Still laughing, I walked over and said that enough was enough. After playfully flicking me with water a couple of times, they all continued washing and drying up.

"Aren't you supposed to be helping the others bring the washing up into the kitchen?" Annabeth asked. After mumbling about having fun watching the water-fight, I went and helped carry the last of the cutlery.

After we cleared up, we all sat down at the dining room table.

"Ok," I said, "first thing's first, has anyone, ah, _seen_ anything that could help us."

After a low murmur of people saying things like 'no, I didn't have any dreams,' and 'no, nothing,' the whole table fell silent.

"So we have no leads on where Nico or the doors of death are."

"I don't see the importance of finding Nico," Jason said, "I'm sorry, but we're on a potentially time sensitive mission, we don't have time to go looking for someone that some of us don't even know. How can he help us with our quest?"

I was about to reply 'he's our friend, and he's also very powerful, therefore useful,' when Sherlock said,

"He might be able to lead us to the doors of death."

Everyone, including me, stared at her in amazement.

"How did you figure that out?" Grover asked.

She looked at me for support.

"Yesterday, when me and Percy were attacked by Dr Thorn, Dr Thorn said that Nico was caught wandering around the doors of death. Which suggests that when Nico was caught, he had already found them. Which means..."

"If we find Nico, he can lead us to them!" Annabeth finished. "Sherlock, you're a genius!"

"There's just one problem," Rachael pointed out, "we're about as close to finding Nico as we are to finding the doors of death."

We all fell silent. Then Annabeth said, "Well, since the doors of death are probably in Greece, we should probably head there.

Piper, Leo, Jason, Rachel, Tyson and Grover nodded in agreement. Ella mumbled something about evil cheese.

"Umm...Guys?" Frank said. We turned to look at him, and he looked to Hazel and me for support. "Didn't Thanatos say something about starting our search in Rome?"

"The giants said that they would destroy Olympus from its roots, which will be in Greece. Besides, Thanatos is the god of death, it could be a trick-we can't trust him." Annabeth said.

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement at that point.

"Well, I'll just go and set the course for Greece then." Leo said. He walked out the room. One by one everyone followed.

I felt like I'd missed something. Something important. Or maybe I'd forgotten something. But whatever it was, it could wait.

* * *

**Like I said, you may well hate me! So, none of the seven saw Nico in their sleep...so who did? Imaginary cookies to those who can guess!**


	9. A Change of Course

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, The Heroes of Olympus or The Kane Chronicles. They rightfully belong to Rick Riordan. I do, however, own Sherlock, her father and her sister Jenny.**

**AHHHHHHHHH! OH MY GODS RICK HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US?**

**(In case you haven't gathered I sneakily finished reading the Mark of Athena at about 0:30 this morning-I was reading ****_all night_****! And OMGs, I cried! I can't believe we've got to wait ****_another year_****! I'm not sure if I can wait that long!**

**I'm not going to say anything, in case I give something away! But…**

**OH MY GODS!**

* * *

Chapter 9-A change of course

Percy's POV

I was walking to my room, when a blur of black and blonde all but flew past me, yelling "Leo! Leo! We've got a change of course!" It took me a second to realize that the blur was Sherlock.

Wondering what was the matter, I ran after her, and ended up following her to the engine room, where she was gasping for breath and waving a couple of sheets of paper.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"I..." Sherlock began, still gasping for breath, "I was talking to Frank when I asked him what you'd meant when you said 'had we seen anything'. He told me that you meant in our dreams, because demigod dreams are real. When he said that, it triggered some kind of memory, but at the time I couldn't remember what. Somehow our conversation got to Nico di Angelo, and I asked Frank about what he looked like, and he told me he had dark eyes and hair, looked kind of like a Goth and often wears an aviator jacket. It was only when I was in my room that I remembered. I saw him in a dream last night!"

"What? Did he say anything?" I asked.

"I was just getting to that, I think he sensed I was there, but I don't think he could see me because he thought I was you, Percy. He said 'Percy, if you can see me, then I'm in a secret base in a basement of a school on the outskirts of Rome!'"

"That's all great, but I don't see what makes you think it's this particular school," Leo said, looking at the pieces of paper, which had maps on them. "There will be loads of schools in Rome."

"After I remembered, I did a bit of research. Talking of which, I really should return Annabeth's laptop before she realizes it's missing... anyway, I typed 'Schools in Rome, Italy' into Google maps, and I worked inwards, hacking into each school's computer system until I found the building plans. I kept hacking until I'd got as far as I could go, and then moved onto the next school. It was at the third school I came across, which was actually the furthest away from the centre, but I didn't see it at first, that I found what I was looking for. The main building plans didn't show a basement, but as I hacked further into the system, a new set of plans appeared that did. Now, if the basement _wasn't_ a secret, then why wouldn't it be on the main building plans? So I researched some more. The only way in and out is by using a lift, which is disguised as a cleaning cupboard. There's some kind of lever in the cupboard, but the plans didn't show what it was, only that it's on the back wall."

I looked at the map. The details above it read 'St. George's School Association Srl. Via Cassia KM 16 00191 Roma'

"Sherlock, I know Annabeth said this earlier, but you are a genius!" I said.

"I'm guessing we're changing the course then." Leo said, starting to plot coordinates into the ship's main computer. "Shall we tell the others now or after dinner?"

"Wait till after dinner." I said.

"Ok," he said, pressing a button on the control panel. He began to speak, and as he did so, his voice sounded through the loudspeaker.

"Hey guys, this is your captain Leo Valdez speaking. I'm just announcing the fact that we are no longer headed for Greece, we are, in fact, headed for St. George's School in Rome, where, if we keep going at the speed we are at the moment, we will be arriving at approximately ten o clock tomorrow morning. All explanations will be given this evening after dinner. That will be all. Thank you."

* * *

After we had explained everything that Sherlock had explained to us earlier, there was a lot of chatter amongst the many members of the 'crew'. Finally everyone fell silent.

"Guys, the thing we really need to discuss here, is a plan," I said, "we need a plan that will work. Any ideas?"

There was a long silence that seemed to stretch on forever. Then, finally, Sherlock said, "I have something that might just work."

Everyone turned to look at her.

"Go on, it's better than no plan at all." Jason said.

"Okay," she began. "At first you may not like it, or might not understand why I've decided on certain things, but hopefully it'll work."

She got out several pieces of paper and put them on the table. She pointed to a hand-drawn 'X' on the first piece of paper, which was a map of the area around the school. The X was about two miles away from the school.

"We land here. Leo, Grover, Frank, Jason, Rachael and Ella stay on the Argo II, while the rest of us go on. Leo, because he's the only one of us who knows how to use the ship; Grover, because of the empathy link between him and Percy; Frank and Jason, because their powers and skills in fighting will be useful in case something should go wrong and we need rescuing, or should the Argo II be attacked; and Ella and Rachael because..."

"Because we're more vulnerable." Rachael finished.

"No offense meant."

"None taken. Although I am getting better with a sword."

"Anyway," Sherlock continued, "If any of you are wondering, there are also reasons for the people who are going. Percy is coming because of the empathy link between him and Grover; Annabeth because of her strategic skills which could be useful if we need to make any changes in plan; Hazel because she can summon Arion, which will provide us a quick getaway if we need it; Piper because if we get caught, either by a teacher from the school or by one of Gaia's minions, she can charmspeak our way out of trouble; Tyson because he's strong and me because I know the layout of the school AND the secret base.

"Anyway, back to the actual plan. We land here, those who are going to the school walk the rest of the way, so that no one suspects that we're demigods. When we get into the school, we blend with students until we reach the lift. If a teacher catches us while we're trying to figure out how to work the lift, then Piper will convince them that we're meant to be there.

"After we've figured out how to operate the lift, we go into the base. That's when we either sneak through unnoticed, or all hell breaks loose. I haven't got enough information to form a plan as to what we'll do when we get there, apart from the obvious, which is free Nico. If we get caught, or we need back up, Percy will alert Grover via the empathy link. Also, when we're in the lift and leaving, Percy will contact Grover and tell him that we need to be collected. Leo will then fly the ship over to the school. If for some reason, we can't wait for the ship, Hazel will summon Arion, and we'll get out that way. So what do you think? Do you think it'll work?"

There was a short pause. Then, Annabeth said slowly "I think…it's a plan worthy of Athena."

"Really?" Sherlock asked, "Even with the middle missing?"

Annabeth nodded, "There's not much point in making a plan for that part, as we don't have enough information."

All twelve people around the table started talking and one by one we each went to bed, knowing that there was the possibility that this might just be the last night we'll ever see.

* * *

**So it was Sherlock who saw Nico in her dreams...**

**And in the next chapter you find out who the strange girl is...imaginary cookies to those who can guess!**

**(And please can somebody actually guess this time!)**

**Also, thank you very much to all of you who have reviewed/followed this story!**

**And, to ****_Abby-Jade-Love_****, it will start to involve some KC stuff in…in the next chapter I think…but not much just yet. The KC characters (the nice ones) will first start getting involved in about…three or four chapters time, maybe?**


	10. Rescue

**Disclaimer: How many times do I have to say this? I do not own Percy Jackson, The Heroes of Olympus or The Kane Chronicles. They rightfully belong to Rick Riordan. I only own Sherlock, her sister Jenny, her father, and the plot.**

**Hi guys!**

**I apologize for not posting this before. I have been unable to write since reading the end of The Mark of Athena. Also, it will most probably take me longer to post chapters now, as I am now having to actually write them as I go along, whereas before I had already written them a ****_long, long time ago!_**

**To ****_Andrewpjo fan_****- Do not worry! I wont be posting anything concerning what happens in the Mark of Athena until at least November, to give people time to read it! And, thank you and well done for being the first person to guess and get the answer to one of my questions right! So here are your well deserved cookies! (::) (::) (::)**

**Anyway, here it is-Chapter ten!**

* * *

Chapter 10-Rescue

Percy's POV

I looked down on the city of Rome as we began our descent, and I prayed to all the gods that this mission should be successful.

When we finally landed, Hazel hugged Frank, we all said our goodbyes, and the six of us who were actually going to enter the base disembarked and watched as the ship disappeared into the clouds.

"Okay guys, are we all okay with the plan?" Sherlock asked. We all nodded.

"Let's go." I said.

* * *

"Okay everyone," Sherlock said, looking into the extremely untidy store cupboard that was full of mops, buckets vacuum cleaners and other such things, "there should be something in here that acts as a lever, somewhere along the back wall."

"There's a lot of stuff on the back wall." Hazel commented as she made her way into the cupboard. She tripped over a stray vacuum cleaner and grabbed the nearest thing to steady herself, which happened to be a mop that was sticking out of a bucket.

I expected the bucket to tip over, spilling its contents all over Hazel, but it stayed put. There was a grinding noise, as the mop was pulled downward with her, and then the sounds of machines roaring to life. The rest of us looked at each other and thought the same thing—Hazel had just found the lever.

We all piled into the cupboard just as the door slammed shut. I helped Hazel up as the lift descended.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she said, dusting herself off, "I don't think that was quite how we planned on finding the entrance."

The door opened, revealing a large room. The walls, floor and ceiling were all concrete and steely grey in color. At the far end of the room were two dracaenae. One started walking (or is it slithering?) towards us, the other turned towards an alarm button. I drew my sword.

Quicker than lightning, Sherlock reached into the lining of her jacket and whipped out an extremely dangerous, completely terrifying...purple water pistol. She aimed it at the dracaenae that was reaching for the alarm.

"How's a water pistol going to help?" I asked. She pulled the trigger. There was a load _bang_ and the monster disintegrated. Leo whistled.

"A gun disguised as a water pistol," he said, "now _that's_ impressive."

She fired at the second dracaenae, which also disintegrated.

"Thanks," she said, "unfortunately, the gunshots have probably alerted every monster in the base that we're here."

Annabeth reached into her pocket and pulled out her Yankees cap. "One of us can sneak in, free Nico, and come back while the rest of us stay here and create a distraction."

Sherlock grinned and pulled a cap of her own out of her jacket.

"Guess what I was thinking," she said.

Annabeth turned to me. "It's probably best if you and Tyson go. Nico knows and trusts you, Percy, and Tyson is strong enough to break down the door if necessary."

She and Sherlock handed us each an invisibility cap, we put them on, and set off. We hadn't walked far when we came across a glass cabinet containing a sword. It took me a second to realize that I recognized it—it was Nico's sword.

Tyson recognized it too. In one swift movement, he had punched through the glass and grabbed it.

"Come on," I said to him, "Nico must be here somewhere, otherwise they wouldn't have that here."

We walked down several more corridors before we came across two strange creatures. One was like a scarecrow, tall and thin. It had rooster feet, and a face so horrible I couldn't even begin to describe it. The other looked almost human, except instead of a head it had a double-bladed axe.

The rooster-footed creature spoke.

"I heard you were released from your duties. I see you no longer have to serve the Kanes, Bloodstained Blade."

_Bloodstained Blade?_ What kind of a name was that? Then again, it _was_ quite appropriate.

"If you mean when Lord Setne ordered me to kill Carter Kane," Bloodstained Blade said, "then yes I was released. Unfortunately I failed to kill him, but we will all have our chance soon."

Who was Lord Setne? Did he serve Gaia? And who was Carter Kane? A demigod perhaps?

The rooster-footed creature laughed. It was a horrible sound.

"Yes, we shall indeed, my friend. Meanwhile, we must settle with the execution of this..._demigod_," he said the word as though it was a foreign concept that he disapproved of, "what was he called? Nicky?"

"_Nico_," Bloodstained Blade corrected. I felt a cold shiver run up my spine. They were planning Nico's _execution_, "Not that it matters what his name is. It's not like he's going to get a gravestone."

They walked off, laughing horribly.

"Tyson," I said, "we should follow them. I have a feeling they're going to where Nico's being imprisoned."

If I could have seen him, I was sure he would have nodded. We followed them down several more corridors. Finally we got to one with several steel doors with heavy steel bolts on them. In the corridor was a dracaenae. When it saw the two creatures it hissed angrily.

_"What do you wantsssss?"_ it asked.

"We have been ordered to execute the son of Hades." the rooster-footed creature replied.

_"The sssson of Hadessssss issssss _my_ prisssoner,"_ the dracaenae hissed, _"he issss _my_ ressssponssssssibility, therefore I will be the one to kill him, not you, _demon_."_

The creature glared at the dracaenae. "Very well," he said finally, "but should you fail, it shall be _you_ who is punished, not us."

They left, leaving the dracaenae muttering angrily, _"Punissssshed if I ssssshould fail...assssss if I would fail...sssssssstupid demonsssssssssss."_

It slid open the bolts on one of the doors, and drew its sword. Through the doorway, I saw Nico launch himself at it, probably trying to make an escape attempt. The dracaenae threw him off and raised its sword, but before it could strike, I stabbed it through the chest with riptide. It looked down at its chest in surprise, before crumbling and turning into dust.

Nico looked at the pile of dust and then said, hopefully, "Percy?"

I couldn't help but notice that there was something different about him, something I couldn't quite put my finger on. I took of the Yankees cap and punched him hard on the shoulder.

"Ouch!" he complained, "What was that for?"

"_That_ was for denying knowing me," I answered.

"Oh. Yeah, I deserved that," he said, without a trace of sarcasm, "I really am sorry about pretending I didn't know you."

"You're lucky we might need to fight our way out, otherwise you would have had a serious injury."

"I hope you're joking about the serious injury part."

I grinned evilly and then nodded.

"We need to get out of here and fast," I told him, "the others are buying us time, but I don't know how much they can get us."

"Wait," he said, walking out of the cell, and sliding the bolt on the cell door next to his. We followed him out.

"Nico, what are you doing?" I asked him.

In answer to my question he opened the door. Inside it was empty, except for a tiny girl. She looked about ten years old, with blonde hair that was matted, knotted and dirty. She was wearing a thin, white dress, and she looked extremely cold. She looked up, startled. Her face was pale, and she had wide, grey eyes. I couldn't help but think that I had seen her face somewhere before.

"Hey," Nico said, gently, "It's me, Nico. I told you my friends would get us out of here."

"Who is she?" I asked.

"Honestly," he replied, "I don't actually know. She's been here all her life, she doesn't even know her own name."

He walked over to her, took of his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. It was then I realized what was different about him. His clothes, which had been a couple of sizes too big a couple of days ago, now fit perfectly. He was taller-he was now the same height as me, and he looked older too.

"Nico, what happened to you?" I asked, "You look older."

Nico's expression darkened. "Time works differently around the doors of death. A few days for the mortal world are a few _years_ there. I'm now about seventeen years old, I think."

"So you found the doors of death then?"

"Yes," he replied, "I don't want to talk about it right now though."

I nodded. Then I realized something.

"We've only got two invisibility caps, and this place is absolutely swarming with monsters," I said, "we'll never be able to get through!"

The girl looked thoughtful. She then said, "Some of the guards are Cyclopes."

At first none of us understood what she meant. Then Nico grinned and said, "That's brilliant! Tyson, give her your cap—you can pretend that you're escorting me somewhere, while you two follow us, wearing the invisibility caps!"

Tyson handed the girl the cap. I held out my hand to her.

"Hold my hand so we can't lose you," I told her. She clutched my hand tightly. Her face was pale and I had to remind myself that, although she was a demigod, she was only ten years old. We put on the caps, and Tyson gave Nico a small push down the corridor, as part of the 'guard' act.

We continued down the many hallways until we reached the area that we'd arrived in. The floor was covered in piles of monster dust, and the four girls were fighting for their lives. Annabeth was the first to see Tyson and Nico.

"Where's Percy?" she asked, looking worried.

"I'm here," I said, taking off the invisibility cap. Tyson and Nico fought their way to the lift, clearing a path for the girl and me. I led her in.

"Stay here," I told her, and then stood outside the lift and held off the monsters with Nico's help. Tyson stayed in the lift with the girl.

"Come on!" I called to the girls. Annabeth, Hazel and Piper fought their way towards us, but Sherlock was locked in combat with a creature similar to the two I'd seen earlier talking about Nico's execution. Instead of hands it had two long, wickedly sharp swords, and although I couldn't see it's face, I had a feeling it wasn't pretty.

The three girls reached the lift, just as me and Nico killed the last of the monsters. I looked around the room for Sherlock. The creature had disarmed her, and she was now ducking and dodging its blows—I knew she wouldn't be able to keep it up for much longer. She dodged one blow, slipped, and fell. I ran to help her, but Nico beat me to it. He shadow-traveled behind the creature and stabbed it through the chest. It crumbled and disintegrated.

Nico helped her up and gave her back her sword, which had been lying on the floor.

"Thanks," she said, smiling gratefully.

"No problem," Nico replied.

"Guys come on, we need to go before more come," Annabeth said. We ran into the elevator, and Piper pushed the lever. 'Hey Grover!' I thought, 'A ride would be nice about now!'

A voice next to me brought me back to Earth.

"Percy, do you know what happened to my cap?" Sherlock asked.

"I think I have it," said a small voice. It was the girl that Nico had befriended.

She took the cap off her head and handed it to Sherlock, who instead of taking it, gasped.

"No...It can't be!" she said. She got down onto her knees so that she was the same height as the girl and swept the girls hair behind her ear. I got my first clear look at her face. Suddenly, I realized why I had recognized the girl.

"Oh my gods," I said, "Sherlock is that..."

She hugged the extremely surprised girl; tears of happiness streaming down her face.

"Jenny," she sobbed, "Jennifer Holmes I promise you I will never let anyone hurt you or take you away again."

The girl, who I now knew was Sherlock's lost sister Jenny, pulled away from her.

"Do you know who I am? Is Jenny my name?" she asked.

"Yes," Sherlock said, smiling, "Jenny, short for Jennifer Holmes, is your name, and as for who you are, you are my little sister."

She stood and faced Nico and me, smiling.

"Thank you for finding my sister," she said. She then hugged us both.

The 'store cupboard' door opened. Just before we stepped out, I looked at Nico. _Was he blushing?_

We got outside to see the Argo II hovering above the playground. We all climbed up the rope ladder (although it took a lot of persuasion to get Jenny to climb up) and we all watched the playground grow smaller as we ascended into the sky.

* * *

**WOW! This is my longest chapter yet! 2395 words (including the authors notes)! Anyway…**

**So, the girl was Jenny, Sherlock's long lost sister. In the next chapter, Sherlock Iris messages her father to tell him the news, and then something unexpected happens…and I ****_don't_**** mean in a good way…**


	11. Attacked!

**Soooo…**

**I guess the first thing I need to do is write the disclaimer, so-I do not own Percy Jackson, The Heroes of Olympus or The Kane Chronicles. They rightfully belong to Rick Riordan. I only own Sherlock, her sister Jenny, her father, and the plot.**

**Right. Now that's over with, I can get on with the other things I wanted to do.**

**First thing's first, I want to apologize for not updating for so long. I was tempted to wait a bit longer before posting, so that I could write the next couple of chapters as well but…I thought it had already been too long. Therefore it might be a while before the next one is posted, although hopefully it'll be no longer than a week.**

**And now to talk about this chapter…**

**I'm sorry about the first page break, but I honestly couldn't think of anything to write there…that bit was part of the reason why this chapter took so long to write, so I gave up in the end. The second one I thought was necessary, because if I had just linked those two sections with writing all it would have done was lengthen the chapter and make it more boring-it wouldn't have had any benefit to the storyline.**

**And finally…**

**At the end of the last chapter, in the authors note, I said that something unexpected happens in this chapter, and not in a good way. Well… I'm not going to give anything away.**

**Happy reading!**

* * *

Chapter 11-Attacked!

Annabeth's POV

"Sherlock!" Leo yelled, "The Iris message is ready! How much longer will you be?"

"Just a couple more minutes," Sherlock called back.

Percy had explained to us who Jenny was and how she'd gone missing, while Jenny had had a shower, borrowed some of Hazel's clothes, since they were the closest to her size, and allowed Sherlock to attempt to drag a hairbrush through her hair. Leo had just constructed a rainbow-making device, which was sat in the center of the table, creating a semi-transparent mist of color.

I wondered if I would have been able to stop Gaia's minions from taking Jenny if I have been there. I felt terrible-If I hadn't of run away, I could have stopped it. Instead I had abandoned my friend without a second thought.

A couple of minutes later, Sherlock and Jenny entered the room. Jenny looked much cleaner and much happier than when I first saw her-her once knotted and dirty hair was now shiny and clean, reaching her waist. The sleeves of the shirt and the legs of the trousers had been rolled up a couple of times, and she was wearing a belt to hold the trousers up.

Sherlock took a golden drachma out of her jacket and threw it into the mist.

"O goddess, accept my offering," she said, "show me Dr Paton Holmes."

An image appeared in the mist-Sherlock's father was sat at his desk, typing on his laptop. I remembered the room well-it was the kind of study that I'd love to have when I get a house or a flat of my own-assuming I live that long.

"Dad!" Sherlock called. He turned and smiled.

"Emily," he said. His eyes rested on Jenny, "who-" he began, frowning. Realization of who she was dawned on him.

"Jenny?" He asked, "is it really you?"

She nodded nervously. He smiled. The years of sadness that I'd noticed when we visited him vanished from his eyes and were replaced with joy.

"How did you find her?" he asked Sherlock.

* * *

After Sherlock had explained to her father about our rescue mission we broke the connection and started discussing what we were going to do next.

"I think we should get out of here as quickly as possible," Jason said, "the prophecy said that _'The mark of Athena'_ would _'burn through Rome'_. We're in Rome right now, and we've no idea what that could mean. We've no idea what ANY of the prophecy means, to be perfectly honest."

"We know what the first line means," Rachel said, "_'Wisdom's daughter walks alone'_-That part means Jenny. She lived the first part of her life completely alone."

"Even more of a reason to leave Rome while we still can," Jason continued, "if the prophecy has started to come true then...well, that line is probably next."

"We can't stop prophecies from coming true-the gods tried that, and look how well _that_ turned out," Percy said gesturing to himself, Jason, Nico and Hazel.

"Besides," Piper cut in, "I think the first thing we need to do is get Jenny some clothes that are actually her size."

Jason and Leo stared at her as though she had just fallen from outer space.

"Piper, has your mother _possessed_ you or something?" Leo asked, "When since have _you_ cared about clothes?"

"I _don't_ care about clothes," Piper replied, "But I have a funny feeling that if we don't find Jenny some clothes that are her own size, then my mother will give us all a makeover. Which is not a good thing."

"Okay, I agree with you there, Piper," Jason said, "We _definitely_ don't want a makeover from your mother."

"So what's the plan then?" Frank asked.

"Me and Jenny could quickly go into a shop, find something, and then leave," Sherlock suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea, except I don't like the thought of you two going on your own," Nico said, sounding concerned, "Someone should go with you."

"I'll go," I volunteered. Nobody objected.

"Well that's settled then," Percy said, "but be quick, you three. I can't get rid of this feeling that something's going to go wrong. The sooner we're flying away from here, the better."

* * *

Five minutes later, me, Sherlock and Jenny were standing in a clothes shop. Sherlock was holding a pair of pale blue jeans against her sister, trying to work out if they were the right size. The two of us had silently agreed that we didn't have enough time for Jenny to try them on.

After deciding that they were the right size, Sherlock grabbed a couple more and then grabbed a few t-shirts and a jacket that Jenny had taken a liking to that were the right size.

"Okay, let's go and pay," she said, walking towards the till.

I was about to follow when something caught my eye. It was one of those shop dummies, but it wasn't the dummy that had caught my eye-it was the clothes it was wearing. Black jeans, black t-shirt with a white skull-and-crossbones logo and a black jacket. In short-exactly the sort of thing Nico would wear. At the foot of the dummy were piles of the advertised clothing in all sizes. Nico, as far as I was aware, didn't have any clothes apart from the ones he was wearing.

I grabbed some of what I hoped was his size, and joined Sherlock in the queue. I then double-checked I'd got the right size-I kept having to remind myself that Nico was 16, nearly 17, not 13.

We paid using some money that Sherlock had taken from Gaia's base, and went outside.

"We need to find somewhere to send the signal," Jenny said, glancing up and down the street.

The plan had been that once we were finished, we'd find a place to send up a signal-some kind of portable, pocket-sized firework that Sherlock carried around for some reason. The only problem was that we hadn't thought about the fact that lighting a firework in a public place was a bad idea.

"How are we going to send the signal," Sherlock asked, voicing my thoughts, "if we light it here then we could get arrested or something."

"Um...guys..." Jenny said nervously, staring across the road, "I don't think we _need_ to send the signal anymore..."

We followed her gaze.

"_Styx_," I swore. Two Laistrygonians were lumbering towards us, with bronze, flaming cannonballs in their hands, ready to throw at us.

"Run!" I yelled, turning to run down the street, the other two doing the same. A nearby car exploded, having just been hit by a cannonball.

I thought back to the first time I had fought Laistrygonians. That time I had only had to kill one, and even then I'd had a few advantages-I was invisible, and I had snuck up behind it. We didn't have either of those.

We ran down several streets, turning corners as much as possible to try to lose them, but they were too fast. They kept up with us easily, and the gap between them and us was closing quickly.

We turned another corner and skidded to a halt. It was a dead end. We turned to go back the way we came, but the Laistrygonians were blocking the exit, along with several creatures that I didn't recognize. They were similar to a couple of the monsters that I'd fought back in Gaia's base. They were humanoid in shape, but like the other creatures they _definitely_ weren't human. The three of us backed up against the wall. Sherlock stood protectively in front of Jenny, who looked absolutely terrified.

The creatures had sharp blades sticking out of their bodies in all sorts of strange places-the tops of their heads, their shoulders, their backs...Not to mention they were all holding swords and knives that looked just as sharp.

"What are you?" Sherlock asked one of them, trying to keep them talking.

"They call us _switchblade demons_," it said, grinning horribly, "and we are under orders to kill all three of you!"

"Two of them," another corrected, "one is needed for information."

"Keep quiet you fool! They don't need to know that!" a third cut in.

The_ switchblade demons_ started squabbling amongst themselves, while the two Laistrygonians tried to separate them. I turned to Sherlock, who was holding two devices in her hands.

"What's the plan?" Jenny asked.

I listened hard for the drone of engines, any sign that the others had realized our situation. There wasn't one.

"We send the signal," I answered, "after that, we have two options: either we charge at them, which is risky as we'll be exposing Jenny, or we wait for them to charge at us, which is also risky as that means we're backed up against a wall with nowhere to retreat to."

Sherlock stared at one of the devices in her hand. "Three options," she murmured, and then turned to me, "look after Jenny," she said.

Sherlock pressed a button on one of the devices, and a red spark flew into the air and exploded into more red sparks high above us, marking where we were.

Sherlock charged, drawing her sword, straight at the monsters that stood ready for her. She was vastly outnumbered, and it would only be a matter of seconds before she was killed.

"Sherlock!" I yelled, "Don't, you'll get yourself killed!"

She paid no attention. At the last second she yelled _"Mia!"_

It was an odd battle cry, but that was before she lifted off the ground, flew over the monsters and hovered about ten feet above them. I realized that I'd heard the word _'Mia'_ before-it was the word that Grover had used to activate the flying shoes that Luke had given him on our first quest. It _wasn't_ a battle cry-Sherlock had a pair of _flying shoes!_

She took the second device and threw it at the monsters. A burning owl appeared, and then it exploded, killing the monsters, and setting fire to a nearby building. The fire quickly spread to other buildings. The sounds of fire alarms filled the air, along with the drone of an engine that was gradually getting louder.

Sherlock landed next to us and stared in horror at the destruction she had caused.

"What have I done?" she said, appalled.

"You've fulfilled the second line of the prophecy," I answered, "_The mark of Athena burns through Rome_. The owl is a symbol of Athena's wisdom. What exactly _was_ that device you used, out of curiosity?"

"It was just a grenade. It shouldn't have caused all _this_," Sherlock replied, gesturing at the burning buildings, "much less the burning owl. The owl must mean that our mother did this, but...why would she do that?"

"I don't think Mom particularly likes the Romans," Jenny said, thoughtfully, "after all, she lost her status as a war goddess when she turned Roman."

Sherlock nodded, "Good point J-" she stopped, abruptly. "_Di imortales_, what is _that_?"

I followed her gaze and saw a spinning vortex of sand a few feet away.

"I don't know," I answered.

Sherlock took a step towards it. Something seemed wrong. I had a really bad feeling that something really bad was about to happen.

"Umm..." I began, "Sherlock I don't think you should-"

One of the dead _switchblade demons_ suddenly grabbed her and pushed her into the vortex.

_"NO!"_ Jenny cried, and together we ran to help her, but it was to late. The vortex had disappeared.

I walked over to the demon and pinned it to the ground, my dagger at its throat. It wasn't, as we had originally thought, dead, but it didn't have much longer to live.

"Tell me what you did," I demanded, "is she still alive?"

"I... sent her through... portal..." the demon answered weakly, breathing heavily, "She is with Lord... Lord Setne... and... and..."

"And who? What do they want with her, where are they?"

"Menshikov... Vladimir Menshikov... They need her for... in... infor... information... They're... in E... E..."

The demon fell silent. It was dead.

"No!" I yelled, the frustration and anger taking over, "No, no, _NO!_"

I looked at Jenny. She was silently sobbing. I walked over to her and hugged her.

"Hey," I said gently, "it'll be okay. She's still alive somewhere, and we're going to find her, no matter what it takes. Everything will be okay."

But even as I said it, I couldn't help but wonder who I was trying to fool-Jenny, or myself.

* * *

**And that is where this chapter is going to end. Review if you want me to give you a small hint about Sherlock in the author's note in the next chapter, as currently I have good news and bad news…**

**The good news is, the next chapter is in the POV of one of the KC characters (for the first time)!**

**The bad news is, we won't hear about Sherlock's situation for another two chapters.**

**So…**

**I know the answer is probably pretty obvious, but where do you think the ****_switchblade demon_**** sent Sherlock? Review ****_please!_**** I know some of you probably hate it when authors beg for reviews, but they're really useful to us and they help us to improve our stories. Also, if more of you reviewed, then we wouldn't ****_have_**** to beg for reviews. So please, ****_please_**** review!**

**Also, in case you were wondering, ****_switchblade demons_**** are ****_not_**** demons that I have made up-they are in ****_The Red Pyramid_****, and you can also find information about them on page 58 (page number may vary if you have a different edition) of ****_The Kane Chronicles Survival Guide_****.**


	12. A meeting in the first Nome

**Disclaimer: As awesome as it would be to own such amazing stories, I don't own PJO or KC. I am not Rick Riordan.**

**Ha ha! I bet after how long it took me to update last time you didn't expect me to update within the week time limit! Well here I am, and…ONE WEEK! I did it! Of course, that then leads to my next point…**

**I am in great need, as many writers on fanfiction are, of reviews. Unfortunately, I haven't had that many, despite how many readers I've been having. So, like many other writers, I am driven to desperate measures…**

**So, as much as you hate this (believe me, I hate it when writers do this too), I will not be updating next Monday unless the review count has reached 13. I don't care if it's just a ****_'I like this part'_****, or whether it's some actual advice, I just ****_want to know what you guys think!_**** That's all I want! I don't care if you ****_hate_**** it, just REVIEW! Please!**

* * *

Chapter 12-A meeting in the first Nome

Carter's POV

The Chief Lector stared wearily at me, Sadie, Zia and Walt as we walked down the forever-lengthening Hall of Ages, and I found myself wondering, not for the first time, why he had summoned us to the first Nome.

I guess I should probably explain a few things.

My name is Carter Kane. Zia is my girlfriend, Sadie is my sister and Walt is her boyfriend, and is currently hosting the Egyptian god Anubis.

No, you didn't miss-read that last part.

No, it wasn't a typing error.

The Egyptian gods are alive today, although they are (mostly) unable to come and help much, due to an incident that happened not that long ago. Me, Sadie, Walt and Zia are magicians- we're descended from the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt.

A while back, the evil chaos snake, Apophis, decided to try to take over the world, and in order to stop him, we had to banish him forever, taking the gods with him. They are now only able to live outside the Duat or wherever they disappeared to if they have a human host (like Anubis).

Unfortunately, in the process we accidentally lost a high-security, dead, evil and extremely crazy criminal whose soul was supposed to be eaten by Amit the Devourer a LONG long time ago. I wondered if this was why Uncle Amos had summoned us-maybe he'd found where Setne ran off to.

Oh yeah, I guess I kind of forgot to mention the fact that the Chief Lector, Amos, is my uncle.

We reached the steps where he was sat.

"I expect you are wondering why I have summoned you here," he said.

We all nodded in response.

"I need you to investigate something," he sighed, "we have been hearing about strange demonic activities around a warehouse not that far from here, in Cairo. It is my belief that someone is up to something, and I want to know who they are, and what they are doing."

We all exchanged glances.

"Two questions," Sadie said, "One, it's _obviously_ Setne, and two-"

"That was a statement," I pointed out.

She glared at me before continuing. "_And two_, why us? Why can't you send a group of more experienced magicians?"

"_I have_," Amos sighed, "none of whom have returned. You four are my final resort-the magicians I sent may have been more experienced than you in most things, but there is one thing that you four have had more, ah, _practice_ at than anyone else."

"Hosting gods and calling on their power," Walt guessed.

"Like _that_ gives us any kind of advantage," Sadie muttered, "the gods are in exile."

"Exactly," Amos said, ignoring Sadie, "I'm reluctant to send you, but I fear that I have no other options."

"Apart from sitting here and doing nothing," I muttered.

_Honestly Carter_, Horus's voice said in my head, _do you seriously count that as an option? You're a warrior, not a coward!_

_That was sarcastic_, I thought back, automatically. Then I did a mental double take. I hadn't heard the voice of Horus in my head since the gods were exiled.

_Horus?_ I mentally asked, _I thought the gods were exiled!_

_We were_, he answered, _but only for a small amount of time, as you may recall being told. Admittedly this _is _a bit sooner than expected, but dark forces have been gradually rising from the depths for centuries. Now _she _is almost completely risen, and the seven cannot stop her without our help. You _must_ go to the warehouse in Cairo-_that_ is where the greatest laws of the world shall finally be broken again, and all three forces of Ma'at shall be joined and will become one._

_What do you mean?_ I asked him. _What dark forces? Who is _'she'_? Who are 'the seven'? And what do you mean by 'the three forces of Ma'at'?_ But of course, Horus remained silent.

"Typical," I muttered. Everyone looked at me in confusion, so I explained my mental conversation with Horus. I got the feeling that Amos knew something, but I also knew that if he didn't want to tell us anything, then he wouldn't. We stood in silence for a couple of minutes, while the Chief Lector sat, deep in thought.

"Uncle Amos?" Sadie said, distracting him from his thoughts, "what do you think?"

"I think," he said, slowly, "that if this is true, then you must leave immediately. If what Carter says is true, which I am sure it is, then there is no time to waste."

* * *

**Sorry this chapter was so short! Till next time-and don't forget to review-I won't update until you do-I'm serious!**


	13. Rescue Plans

**Hi there! I don't own PJO or KC-I just own the plot, Sherlock, Jenny and Dr Paton Holmes!**

**I'm sorry that this chapter is three days late…but I needed to finish it. I have my reasons for not finishing it before Monday-Last week I had a horrible cold, which meant I was really tired, and since I normally write just before I go to sleep, I often skipped writing because I was so tired! I'm sorry!**

**To EVERYONE-****_please_**** review! Since my threats were so successful last time, I will do it again-I won't post any more chapters until the review count reaches 18! Thank you to those who ****_have_**** reviewed-your reviews are very much appreciated!**

**To boucaud .kids-I'm sorry, but it isn't England-although good guess! It hadn't even occurred to me that I could send the demigods there…I won't say where it ****_is_****, since you're about to find out anyway! And don't worry, I will continue! Also, I apologise for the random space in the middle of your pen name-for some ****weird reason whenever I save a chapter (I discovered this when I replied to your PM back in chapter six as well, although I only just realised-sorry), it keeps deleting your pen name whenever I type it properly! Have you any idea why that may be?**

**To Red-Thank you! I ****_would_**** prefer it if you just reviewed the most recent one, and thank you for doing so! I understand what you're saying about Sherlock-and trust me, she will gain weakneses soon-not to mention the ones she already has will become clear as the story (and the next one) goes along. I imagine Sherlock as someone who seems strong and without weakness on the outside, but who you eventually realize has a lot of weakneses-also, the invisibility cap wasn't originally meant to be there-I realized that if the sneaking-through-Gaia's-base-invisibly thing was going to work, then I'd need another one, so I gave it to Sherlock. As for the gloves, I keep meaning to explain them in the story, but not finding an appropriate time to do so-I have figured out when that will happen though, so bear with me, please! The sword-pen…well I was out of ideas at the time, so that probably explains it…maybe I'll go back and change it at some point…**

**To Ellie-I know you're reviewing a chapter from ages ago, but still, thank you! In case you hadn't already gathered, you were correct-the mystery person is Jenny-and thank you so much for reviewing! And in reply to the second review, don't worry-you're getting more!**

* * *

Chapter 13-Rescue plans

Percy's POV

We sat around the table in silence, except for Jenny's quiet sobs and Nico's murmured words of comfort. It seemed strange seeing him acting all older-brotherly, but I guess somebody had to comfort her, and he knew her best, having been imprisoned in the cell next door to her back in Rome.

"We have to send Sherlock's father an Iris message," I said eventually, "he ought to know about...about what happened."

"She's not dead," Nico said, "we can still find her and get her back home safely. Is it really necessary to make her father worried?"

"He has a right to know," Annabeth said, "besides, Dr Holmes isn't stupid. He knew about mom's identity all this time and he knows the dangers of being a demigod. He would have made sure that he had a way of finding her if she went missing, especially after Jenny was taken. If we Iris message him, he may be able to help us find her."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Leo set up the rainbow-making device while the rest of us sat in silence. Eventually, a semi-transparent mist of color appeared. Annabeth threw a drachma into the mist.

"O goddess, accept our offering," she said, as the coin disappeared, "show us Dr Paton Holmes in Roanoke, Virginia."

An image appeared in the mist. Dr Holmes was standing, still wearing his lab coat, along with a pair of safety goggles. He appeared to be working of some kind of small, shiny, black object that looked kind of like a TV remote. I wasn't sure why the goggles were necessary, but then again, I had no idea what the device was supposed to do.

Annabeth took a deep breath.

"Dr Holmes," she said, "we need to talk."

He nearly dropped the device in surprise. He carefully put it down on a nearby workbench and removed the goggles.

"Annabeth," he said, concernedly, "what's wrong? You look troubled."

"Um," she said, clearly unsure as to how to break the news to him, "it's about Sherlock."

Dr Holmes suddenly looked worried and panicked. "What's happened?" he asked, his voice full of dread.

Annabeth explained what had just happened.

"I'm sorry," she finished, "truly I am. This is all my fault-if I had been more careful, they would never have taken her."

"Annabeth you can't possibly blame yourself for all of this! There was nothing you could have done." Dr Holmes exclaimed. The sadness that I had seen in his eyes when we first met him had returned, and was now evident in expression.

"If it's any consolation," Nico said quietly, "I can tell you that Sherlock is definitely still alive somewhere."

Dr Holmes looked at him, astonished. "How do you know?" he asked him.

"I'm the son of Hades," Nico replied, "I can sense these things-if Sherlock's soul had passed into the underworld, then I would know."

"Then there is still hope!" Dr Holmes cried, hurriedly opening a nearby cupboard, "Annabeth, was Sherlock wearing her owl necklace when she was taken?"

"The one you gave her?" Annabeth said, frowning, "of course she was wearing it-she always wears it. But what's that got to do with anything?"

Dr Holmes didn't reply. He took a device out of the cupboard, along with a box and a form for Hermes Express delivery service. He rapidly filed out the form, stuck it to the box along with several drachmas and put the device in the box. The box disappeared, and then to our surprise it reappeared on the table in front of us.

Annabeth picked it up and opened it. Inside was what looked a bit like a game-boy advance, except it was touch screen. She flicked the 'on' switch. A map of the world appeared on the screen.

Realization of what it was dawned on Annabeth.

"Dr Holmes, you're a genius!" she cried. The rest of us stared at her, still clueless as to what the object was. "The necklace is a tracking device, isn't it? And this is how you track it-and wherever the necklace is..."

"...Sherlock is," Dr Holmes finished, "where does it say she is?"

Annabeth studied the device, and then yelled, "That's it! E!"

"E?" Dr Holmes asked, clearly just as confused as we were.

"Egypt! That's what the demon tried to say! The one that pushed Sherlock through the portal-when I asked it where it sent her, it tried to tell me, but it only managed to say 'E' before it died-it was going to say Egypt, I'm sure of it!"

"Where in Egypt?" Nico demanded.

"Cairo," Annabeth answered.

Leo stood up.

"I'll go and set the course for Cairo then," he said, walking out the door.

There was an awkward silence. Nobody quite knew what to say. Then eventually, Dr Holmes asked us to tell him when we found Sherlock, and we promised him we would. We broke the connection and one by one, we all went to bed.

* * *

**Nico's POV**

I stared out across the sky. Normally, spending time outside with a beautiful view like this would clear my thoughts, and calm me down. But not now.

_Sherlock_. I only met her today, only been with her for a few hours, yet I felt like I'd known her all my life. In a sense I guess I had.

You see, like most demigods, I have dreams that turn out to be real. Ever since I can remember (which is ever since I was ten, thanks to living in the lotus casino for sixty years), I've had dreams about a beautiful and intelligent girl with blonde hair and dark eyes...and look _exactly_ like Sherlock.

When I first saw Sherlock, I had thought I must have still been dreaming. But it had been real. SHE was real. But surely it was a coincidence? That's what I had thought, until we Iris-Messaged her father _and I recognized him_.

The dreams were normally similar. Normally about ordinary things-normally they showed the girl doing normal things, like reading. But there were a couple that didn't. Those were the ones that made the least sense and scared me the most.

In one, I see the girl when she was very young, about six or seven, and her father. In the dream, the girl runs down a road, calling for her father, when suddenly she comes across him lying unconscious on the pavement, still wearing his lab coat, beaten up and covered in blood. She then calls an ambulance, and when it arrives and takes her father on board, the driver tells her that he's lost so much blood it is likely that he will die.

The other, if possible, scares me even more. I'm in a Greek temple made of black obsidian. There are others there, but all I ever remember is Sherlock. She's on her knees, and she's in pain. She looks up at me, into my eyes. Her own eyes are full of fear. _'I'm dying, aren't I?"_ she says. I lie to her; tell her that she's going to be okay, that everything's going to be fine, even though I know it won't be. _'Nico, tell me the truth. Please.'_

Over the years, I had gotten used to the dreams. I had accepted them as products of my imagination. It hadn't been easy to do, especially since from the moment I first saw her in a dream, I had loved her. But then I met Sherlock.

I wasn't sure what I felt about Sherlock. My thoughts and feelings get all jumbled up whenever she's around. She's exactly like the girl in the dreams, and part of me wishes that they're the same person-that means the girl is real. Could it be possible? Could the dreams be real? But if they ARE the same person and the girl is real, that means the dreams are real too, and that means that Sherlock is going to die. I know one thing about my feelings for certain-I don't want that to happen.

Tonight my dreams were different. This time I knew they were real, which made it even worse.

In the dream, Sherlock was tied to a chair and was being asked questions over and over again by a Russian guy who looked like an evil ice-cream-man. He kept yelling _'tell me their weaknesses'_, mixed with various different curses, threats and incantations. I realized that he was torturing her using some kind of magic-it was clear that she was in a lot of pain, but was trying not to give him the satisfaction of seeing. I felt angry at the man hurting her, and angry at myself, although I wasn't sure why.

I needed to talk to someone about it. I needed to tell someone, but whom could I tell? Who would understand?

I walked down to our rooms, and stopped in front of Percy's. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

* * *

**Please could you tell me what you think about this Nico/Sherlock thing? I think it may have been a bit rushed, but I'm worried that if I don't do it now, then I won't be able to as the plot won't allow it…so can you guys tell me how to improve? Do you think Nico's dreams were real? Does he have actual feelings for her? And does she have feelings for him? Please, review and tell me what you think! I will try to post by next Thursday…assuming you guys review, of course!**


	14. We Rescue a Stranger

**Hiya guys!**

**Wow. I don't think I've said ****_'hiya guys'_**** in years. These days I tend to just say ****_'hey'. _****In a friendly way of course. **

**Sorry, I was going off on a train of thought. Where was I? Oh yes, the disclaimer…**

**_I do not own PJO or the Heroes of Olympus, or the Kane Chronicles-if I did then that would mean that I had written them, which would mean they would be no-where near as good. They rightfully belong to Rick Riordan, who is completely awesome! I only own Sherlock, Jenny, Dr Paton Holmes and the plot._**

**Wow. That has got to be my longest disclaimer yet.**

******Once again, I won't post next Thursday unless the review count has reached 25.**

**So, thank you to ****_Fanwriter1997 _****for following me (in the internet authory way, not in the stalker way), to ****_Fanwriter1997_**** and ****_KJtheELMtree _****for following my story, to ****_Fanwriter1997_**** for favouriting me, and to ****_Fanwriter1997_****, ****_KJtheELMtree_**** and ****_RyuNoRainbow_**** for favouriting my story! Also, thank you to the following people for reviewing!**

**To ****_KJtheELMtree_****-I ****_think_**** this counts as combining…if not there will be a ****_definite_**** combination in either the next chapter. Also, you reviewed ****_last_**** Thursday, which was when I uploaded chapter 13, and unfortunately, I can't write that fast! So when I said 'next Thursday' ****_last_**** Thursday, I meant ****_this_**** Thursday. Does that make sense?**

**To ****_RyuNoRainbow_****-Thanks! Also, ****_'figments'_****? Did you mean feelings? Because I'm not sure what you were referring to there. Did auto-correct go haywire or something? (It happens to me a lot!)**

**To ****_Fanwriter1997_****-Thanks for the advice, you're not the only one who's been complaining about those two chapters, and how this story is a bit rushed-I'm trying to sort out the problem with the story being rushed (although I'm finding it difficult), and I will probably get round to editing those two chapters at some point, but currently I am too busy what with homework and trying to keep up with everything else, plus writing the current chapters! And I will read and review your story as soon as I can, thanks for telling me about it! (I may review as a guest, in which case I'll be reviewing as ****_'Sherlock'_****) In reply to your second review, I'd like to make something clear. None of the characters are meant to resemble me or anyone I know in any shape or form. A few of my personal traits ****_may_**** rub off on a couple of my OCs, (eg, musical taste, way of dressing, habits ect), but they are not meant to ****_be_**** me. They are entirely in my head, and if they ****_were_**** supposed to be me, then they wouldn't be anywhere near as brave or courageous.**

**To ****_Red_****-Thanks for the advice, yet again! Also, great idea! Great minds must think alike, since I have been considering doing that myself…**

**To ****_1 fan_****-Thanks!**

* * *

Chapter 14-We rescue a stranger

Carter's POV

"Okay," I whispered to the others, "do we all know the plan?"

Zia and Walt nodded.

"Remind me, why are we breaking into the wrong warehouse?" Sadie said.

I glared at her. Trust Sadie not to pay attention while the rest of us came up with the plan.

"We're breaking into this warehouse, because it's next door to the one we want to observe." I informed her, "That way, we can get as close as possible to the one we want to observe without being out in the open, which lowers our chances of being spotted. After that...we improvise."

"But no matter what we see, we can't get involved?" Sadie asked.

"Yes."

"Even if it IS Setne?"

"Yes. This is an observation mission-therefore, we _observe_ but we don't _do_ anything."

The lock on the door sprang open. It was a small side door, which was easy to miss, particularly in the dark, if you didn't know it was there. It was only due to Walt's excellent night-vision that we actually found it. We slipped silently through it.

To our surprise we found ourselves in a brightly lit corridor. It had a kind of hospitalized, lab-like feel, with spotlessly clean white walls.

"Um, this may sound like a stupid question," Walt whispered, "but do warehouses normally have corridors in them?"

"I don't think so," I replied.

"Why are we whispering?" Sadie whispered.

I was about to answer by saying _'I don't know'_, when suddenly, we heard voices. I looked cautiously round the corner. Two demons were standing there, deep in conversation. I realized with a jolt that I recognized one of them-it was Face of Horror, one of my greatest enemies-but he should be down in the deepest parts of the duat! I would have attacked him then and there, but Sadie pulled me back and gave me a meaningful look. This was an observation mission-as much as I hated it, we couldn't get involved.

The other demon was unlike any other demon I had ever seen. It was a woman, wearing what looked like some kind of strange battle armor, but instead of legs, she had snake trunks.

"You failed your task, _dracaenae_," Face of Horror said, "you failed to kill the boy. You let him escape!"

"_The fault wassssss not mine, but yoursssssssss,_ demon," the _dracaenae_ answered, "you _were sssupossssed to be on guard duty that day-_you _let the demigodssssssss in!"_

_Demigods?_ I thought, confused. Did that mean half god? If so, what was the other half? Who were they? And when since did gods have romantic relationships with mortals? Well, apart from Anubis, but I thought that his relationship with Sadie was the first and only time a god _had_ had a relationship with a mortal.

"But _you_ let them escape, you Greek fool! Gaia may have let you back through the doors, but you will still be punished by Lord Setne!" Face of Horror hissed.

_Greek fool?_ And who was Gaia? I mentally asked Horus, but he remained silent.

_"Your_ Lord Ssssetne _issssss under orderssssss from my missssstresssss not to dissssssstroy any of her forcesssssss,"_ the _dracaenae_ argued, _"he would not dare to dissssssssobey, neither would your other puny lord!"_

I wondered briefly who the _'other puny lord'_ was, but then another voice joined the conversation.

"If you would be so kind as to stop arguing, then I have orders for you." the voice had an accent that sounded French.

"Dr Thorn," Face of Horror said angrily, "can this not wait-"

"It is of the uttermost importance," _'Dr Thorn'_ replied, "it is believed that the demigods have discovered our location. We must strengthen the defenses immediately!"

The three of them hurried off in the opposite direction.

"What was all that about?" Sadie asked, confused, "Why are there demons here? Surely they would all be in the other warehouse? The one we're supposed to be observing? Why aren't they?"

_Because you're in the wrong warehouse_, Horus answered in my head, _you've broken into the warehouse _supposed _to be observing!_

_Why didn't you tell me before?!_ I mentally yelled.

_You didn't ask._

"Great," I said sarcastically, and then explained the problem to the others. As I did so, Sadie took out her wand and her staff and stood behind me, looking out for any approaching demons.

"So what do we do?" Walt asked, "We've already broken in-we might as well finish the job."

"What?!" Zia exclaimed, "We can't stay in here-the further in we get, the more this place will be swarming with demons-we need to get out of here now!"

"Or alternatively," a scarily familiar, Russian voice said from behind me, "you surrender before I slit the girl's throat."

I whirled round. Standing there was an extremely smug Setne, a demon carrying the limp body of a blonde girl, and the one who had spoken, Vladimir Menshikov, pressing a knife blade to my sister's throat. My fists clenched in anger.

_"Let her go!"_ Walt demanded, angrily.

"And why should I do that?" Menshikov asked.

We didn't answer-we didn't _have_ an answer. Instead, Zia spoke.

"You should be dead. You _were_ dead."

Setne grinned evilly.

"But now our patron has allowed us to walk through the doors of death, and we are alive again," he said, with glee, "and unless you want Sadie Kane to die, you will surrender to us. Now, if you would be so kind as to put your weapons on the ground, then we'll consider letting her go."

We did as he asked, and in return, Menshikov let go of Sadie and pushed her in our direction. I caught her before she fell.

"Are you okay," I whispered to her.

She nodded, her face was a little paler than usual, but other than that, she looked fine.

"What do you want with us?" Walt demanded.

"We want to know exactly how much the house knows of our location and our plans," Setne answered.

"And why should we tell you that?" Walt demanded.

"Because if you don't, we have plenty of ways of...persuading you, as this young demigod could tell you, if she were awake," Menshikov answered, gesturing to the blonde girl that the demon was carrying.

"You mean...you've been _torturing_ her?" Zia asked, horrified, "aside from the fact that using that branch of magic is punishable by death, that's...that's _horrible_. The poor girl..."

"Yes, yes, we get the point," Setne interrupted, irritably, "and the same thing will be happening to you unless you tell us what we want to know!"

"I don't think so," Zia said angrily. She threw some ribbons at the two magicians and yelled _"Tas!"_*****

Setne and Menshikov were so surprised that by the time they realized what was happening, the ribbons were already wrapping them up like mummies. The demon holding the girl looked around confusedly.

"Don't just stand there, do something!" Setne yelled at it.

The demon set the girl down carefully on the floor and lunged at us with its claws. Unfortunately for it, I had already picked up my _khopesh_, and pretty soon it was a pile of dust on the floor.

Walt picked up the unconscious girl.

"Come on, we have to get out of here!"

I couldn't agree more. We all ran out the warehouse as though Apophis himself was chasing us.

* * *

A few hours later, we were in a hotel room, watching the sun rise. The blonde girl was lying on the bed, still unconscious. Over the past few hours, her condition had got worse-she had developed a fever and according to Walt, if she didn't receive treatment soon, there was a possibility that she might die. It turns out that Walt, thanks to Anubis, is able to sense when people are dying.

I looked over at the girl. She was pretty, I guess, she was wearing clothes that were mainly black and dark blue in color, along with a black denim jacket. Suddenly, I noticed something glinting around her neck. I walked over to her to take a closer look. It was a silver pendant, shaped like an owl. I carefully unclasped it and took it off her.

"Carter, what _are_ you doing?" Sadie asked.

I showed her the pendant. "She was wearing this."

"So why are you taking it?"

"She could strangle herself in her sleep if I don't."

"Honestly Carter, you worry too much. She's not going to strangle herself in her sleep."

"She _could_..."

"Tell you what," Zia cut in, "if it makes you feel better, _I'll_ look after it."

I handed her the necklace and she pocketed it.

"Well now that's settled, I think I'll go and buy some breakfast," she said, "Sadie, do you want to come with me?"

Sadie nodded, and they both walked out the door, leaving Walt and me alone with an unconscious girl.

* * *

About ten minutes later, Sadie burst through the door. She looked as though she'd just run a long way, and she looked panicked.

"What happened?" Walt demanded.

"We were attacked," Sadie answered, "by demons and...and other creatures. There were too many of them, we were outnumbered. I only just got away. But that's not all," she looked at me, and a sense of foreboding came over me.

"Sadie," I said slowly, dreading the answer, "where's Zia?"

"They took her," Sadie replied, "there was nothing I could do, so I came here to warn you. But...they took Zia."

* * *

*******_'Tas'_**** is the divine word for ****_bind_****.**

**So…**

**In case you guys hadn't realized, the girl that they just rescued is none other than Sherlock. Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but ****_Face of Horror_**** was one of the two demons who Percy and Tyson followed when they were trying to find Nico in chapter ten (the other was ****_bloodstained blade_****).**

**And also, ****_please review_****! I am so happy to see that so many people are reviewing, even though I think it's only because I keep threatening to not update, but I would ****_love_**** to see more!**

**Till next Thursday!**

**(Or earlier)**

**(Or later if for some reason it's delayed)**


	15. Civilisation's Heart

**Disclaimer-How many times do I have to say this-I AM NOT RICK RIORDAN, THEREFORE I DO NOT OWN PJO, KC or HoO! I ****_do_****, however, own Sherlock, Jenny, Dr Paton Holmes and the plot.**

**Okay, so I guess it's time for the reasons/excuses (delete as appropriate). I'm really sorry!  
Reason no. 1 for not updating sooner: Until last week, the review count didn't reach the required amount of reviews.  
Reason no. 2: I didn't have much time for writing last week or the week before due to playing the flute in various concerts/masses.  
Reason no. 3: I had several tests to revise for.  
Reason no. 4: I caught a cold (again).  
Reason no. 5: I then developed a small case of writers block for a couple of days.**

**Now that I've got ****_that_**** over and done with...**

**Hey! :D Guess what day it is today-that's right, it's the apocalypse! Not that I believe it-the apocalypse isn't going to happen just yet.**

**But I'm updating today not just to give you the next chapter, but also to say 'happy apocalypse!', to give you something to read from me in case the apocalypse ****_does_**** happen, to give you an update about what's supposed to happen (one kind of serious, one just plain stupid), and to tell you a few amusing things about my life.**

**So, number 1-****_Happy apocalypse/Happy lack-of-apocalypse!_**

**Number 2-...oh, wait my second reason for uploading was the chapter...scratch that. Ignore number two.**

**Number 3-Serious info-the apocalypse is meant to happen at 11:12 this morning (English time (I think. I heard it in the English news so...)). Stupid info-apparently there's a town in France (which I've forgotten the name of) that will be safe, as everybody there will be rescued by UFOs.**

**Number 4-I'm going to the cinema with friends to see 'Rise of the Guardians' today-which may well prove to be dangerous for several reasons...  
-There is a possibility of increased crime rate, due to the belief that the world will end...  
-There is a guy somewhere in the local(ish) area that has tried to kidnap two kids and may well try to do so again...  
-Then there is the obvious minor possibility that the world will end.  
Do not fear! Me and my friends will go prepared for self defense with a variety of 'weapons', possibly including umbrellas, keys, pens (because we're PJO fans!) and inflatable hammers. (You didn't seriously think I meant ****_real_**** weapons, did you?)  
So basically, the world could end, there's a possibility of increased crime rates, there's a pedophile on the lose, and there's some rumor going round that there's going to be three days of darkness, during which you shouldn't leave you homes, but we're still going out to watch a film, armed only with everyday household objects...Which personally I think is hilarious. Maybe it just sounds that way in my head though...  
The thing that really sucks? If the world ****_does_**** end at 11:12 this morning, then we'll either be on a train, or waiting for one at the train station.  
And also, unfortunately for one of my friends, it's her birthday today! Imagine that-imagine having your birthday on the day the world is supposed to end...good thing it won't! Happy Birthday!**

**So, as you can guess, a lot is going on in my life at the moment. Three cheers for my fellow non-believers in the apocalypse! And I will try to update next week at some point, assuming the world doesn't end, I don't get mugged and I don't get kidnapped by a pedophile...LOL...ROFL...:D**

**Enjoy the chapter, and remember-just because the Mayan calendar ends today does not mean the world is going to end-it is more likely that they got lazy, they couldn't be bothered, they decided to stop there or they ran out of room. So don't panic, and I'll tell you all about my lack-of-apocalypse next time!**

* * *

Chapter 15-Civilisation's Heart

Percy's POV

You know how annoying it is when you've been trying to get to sleep for ages, and then just as you finally manage to do so, something wakes you up? If so, then you can pretty much guess how irritated I was, when, just as I was about to fall asleep, somebody knocked on the door.

I got out of bed, walked across the room and opened the door. It was Nico. I opened my mouth, about to tell him exactly how annoyed I was, but his expression made me stop. He looked sad, worried and uncertain. Not at all normal for him.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

I nodded. He entered the room and sat on the bed. I closed the door behind him.

"What's wrong?" I asked him, cutting straight to the point.

"It's...It's Sherlock," he answered nervously. He then went on to explain about his dreams, and his feelings for her. Eventually, he lapsed into silence, and stared glumly at the floor.

"So let me get this straight," I said, trying to get my head around everything he had just told me. "You've been having dreams ever since you got out of the lotus casino about a girl, who you fell in love with and happens to look exactly like Sherlock. You're now wondering if they're real, hoping they're not because if they _are_ real, then that means Sherlock is going to die, and also wondering if you have actual feelings towards Sherlock or if it's just because she looks like the girl in your dreams. You're also worried about her because you know that she's being tortured for information, and you're also angry at the guy who's hurting her." I paused. "Have I about summed up what you're trying to say?"

He nodded. "Do you think the dreams were real?" he asked.

"I don't know," I answered, "the only way we can tell for definite is by asking her."

"Asking her? How is _that_ going to help? She won't know any more about her future than we do!"

"But she _will_ know about the past," I pointed out, "if you ask her about the other vision-the one when she found hr father in the streets-I'm sure she'll know if _that_ one was real. If it wasn't, then that means that she's not going to die."

Nico nodded. Despite the brave face he wore, I could see that there was still something bothering him. I waited in silence for a couple of minutes, wondering if he was going to tell me what it was. Finally, he asked, "how did it feel? When you realized you loved Annabeth, but wasn't sure if she loved you back?"

I thought about the question. "I don't know," I answered, "I guess I never really had time to worry about that, what with the Titan war and everything." I paused. "You're worried about your feelings for Sherlock, aren't you? You're worried that she doesn't feel the same way."

"Percy, I'm not just _worried_, I _know_ she doesn't-I mean, who could love a son of Hades? My father is the god of the dead, I hang around with the dead on an almost daily basis, not to mention the fact that I'm always being hunted because of how powerful I am, which means I'm a dangerous person to be around."

"Nico, any girl that cares about any of that isn't worth your time. If Sherlock _does_ feel the way you do, then she won't care about any of that."

Nico looked doubtful. I could tell he didn't believe me. He stood up.

"Thanks for...you know."

"You're welcome," I replied.

He left the room, closing the door softly behind him. After a couple of minutes I lay down on the bed and drifted back to sleep.

* * *

"So, we all know what we're going to do," Jason summed up, "but we don't know who's going to do what."

Annabeth nodded. Our plan was that four of us go down and search Cairo for Sherlock using the tracking device, while the others stayed on the ship as back up.

"I'll go!" Jenny said quickly before anyone else could.

"No, definitely not!" Annabeth exclaimed, "It's too dangerous!"

"I'M the reason she's there in the first place! Besides, I'm her sister, I have a right to go!"

"Annabeth's right," Nico said, "Jenny, how do you think Sherlock or your father would feel if something happened to you? You're not trained, you're too young, and this mission _will_ be dangerous-it's not like last time, when there was only a slight possibility."

"Well who else is going to go, if not me?" Jenny asked, looking determined.

"I will," me, Nico, Annabeth, and, to my surprise, Piper said at once. We all looked at Piper.

"What?" she asked, "am I not allowed to help a friend? Besides, it's my fault she's in this situation anyway-I was the one who suggested we stayed in Rome."

"I just...didn't think you guys were...particularly close." Annabeth said.

"So? Why are you looking at me-Nico has barely met her!"

"I think us four going is a good idea," I said, before anyone could agree with her, "Piper's charmspeak, Annabeth's wisdom, Nico's power over the dead and my power over water could all be useful."

There were several nods and murmurs of agreement. The only person who didn't agree was Jenny, who was currently sulking. The sight almost made me laugh-you would never had realized just by looking at her now, that she had spent the first ten years of her life locked in a cell.

"Well that's settled then," Jason said.

We all started making preparations for the mission, except Jenny, who locked herself in her room and refused to come out, even when Nico tried coaxing her out with chocolate, which she had developed a liking for.

I packed a small rucksack with money, ambrosia, nectar, food and water, checked my sword was in my pocket (in pen form), and met the other three on the top deck, just as the ship began to make its descent.

* * *

"We're close," Annabeth said, staring intently at the screen of the device in her hand. We had been walking round the streets of Cairo for just over an hour now, and we'd seen no sign of anything suspicious. No monsters, nothing.

"How close?" Piper asked.

"Well, if I'm guessing correctly, then she should be just down there." Annabeth pointed down a narrow alleyway. It was dark, despite the fact that the sun was shining brightly.

"That's...one creepy alleyway," I commented, "how can it be so dark down there, when everywhere is so sunny? It's as though the light can't get down there."

"Percy, that's just because it's extremely narrow and the buildings either side are extremely tall," Annabeth sighed, "there's nothing sinister or creepy about it."

"Oh. Right. I uh...I knew that."

"Yeah, right."

"Hey!"

We crept slowly down it, weapons at the ready. We were about halfway down the alleyway, when we heard voices coming from just around the corner.

"I say we kill her. What use is she to us? We can tell our lords that it was an accident-they need never know the truth," one voice said.

"Lord Menshikov needs her for information! If we kill her, he'll find out that we did it and punish us!" another said.

The four of us looked at each other. Nico mouthed 'Sherlock?' We knew what he was trying to ask-were they talking about Sherlock?

I held up three fingers. The others nodded-we would attack whoever was round the corner on the count of three.

_One_...

_Two_...

_THREE!_

We charged round the corner, where our view down the alleyway was blocked by several of the strange creatures that we'd been encountering a lot recently. They were clearly in the middle of a heated argument, and they appeared to be the same species as the ones that Annabeth, Sherlock and Jenny had run from when they were in Rome. What had Annabeth said they had called themselves? _Switchblade demons_.

They looked up in surprise, and I used the moment to lunge at the first one. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as distracted as I had thought; it dodged and drew a strangely shaped knife. The others did the same.

Suddenly, the demons burst into flame. The heat was intensely hot, and it took less than a couple of seconds for the creatures to be reduced to ashes.

Standing behind the demons' remains was a girl with vaguely Arab features, wearing what looked like linen pyjamas. In her hand, she held a ball of fire, which after a moment or two, extinguished.

"Thanks," I said to the girl, "umm...how did you just do that?"

"I'm a fire elementalist," she replied, as though that was completely obvious. "My name's Zia Rashid. Who are you?"

"I'm Percy, and this is Nico, Annabeth and Piper."

"Well, thank you, Percy, Nico, Annabeth and Piper, for creating that distraction. It certainly helped me in killing those two demons."

"Um...your welcome?" I said, unsure if that was meant as a compliment.

Annabeth looked from the device in her hands to Zia.

"Zia," she said slowly, "you haven't by any chance seen a girl with blonde hair? She'll probably be wearing all black, and she goes by the name of 'Sherlock'."

Zia's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Maybe I have. What's it to you?"

"She's our friend," Nico answered. "She was kidnapped by a group of...whatever those creatures you just killed were."

"_Switchblade demons_," Annabeth and Zia answered, Annabeth sighing in exasperation-she had already told him several times.

"Well, as a matter of fact, a few of my friends and I rescued an unconscious girl from a warehouse not far from here. She fits your description. Come to think of it, she was wearing this-does it mean anything to you?"

She took out of her pocket a silver chain, and dangling from it was...

"Sherlock's owl pendant!" Piper exclaimed.

Nico took it from Zia and examined it suspiciously.

"Why do you have this? It doesn't belong to you. How do we know this isn't a trick?"

"Nico, it _can't_ be a trick," Annabeth interrupted, "or at least, if it IS a trick, then Zia here really does know where Sherlock is."

"How do you know?" Nico argued.

"Because the reason we found Zia in the first place is because this led us straight to her," Annabeth explained, holding up the device Sherlock's father gave us, "or, more specifically, it led us straight to the necklace that is in your hand."

Zia looked extremely confused.

"What in the name of Ra are you talking about?" she asked.

"Sherlock's father is an inventor and a scientist," Annabeth explained, "when Sherlock was born, he knew about the gods, and he also knew that Sherlock would be hunted because of what she was. So he made that necklace, gave it her, and told her to wear it always. What he _didn't_ tell her was that it emits a signal that he can use to track her, wherever she is. When she was taken, he gave us this device do that we can find her-it picks up the signal from the necklace and pinpoints it on a map."

"Oh." Zia paused. "Do you want me to take you to her then? She should still be back at the hotel with the others."

I looked at the others. I could tell that we were all thinking the same thing. Could we trust Zia? She could be a servant of Gaia for all we knew; this could all be a trap. But whoever she was, at least a small amount of her story had to be true-she had to have seen Sherlock, met her, or worked for the ones keeping her prisoner to have the necklace, which meant she'd have to know roughly where Sherlock was. We didn't have a choice-we had to go with Zia. It was the only chance we'd ever get of finding Sherlock.

I nodded. "Lead the way."

Zia turned and led us down the alleyway. As we walked, Piper attempted to make conversation with her.

"So, um, who's this 'Ra' person you mentioned?" she asked.

"What?" Zia replied.

"When we were talking a few minutes you asked 'What in the name of Ra are you talking about'. So who's Ra?"

"I _know_ that, what I meant was how can you not know?"

"Know what?" Nico asked.

"Know who Ra is!" Zia exclaimed, "How can you not know who Ra is? He's god of the sun!"

I was about to say _'Isn't that Apollo?'_, when a voice cried "Zia, thank the gods you're alright!"

We all turned towards the voice, and saw a guy running towards us, also wearing what looked like linen pyjamas. He hugged Zia, who hugged him back. They broke apart, and he turned to look at us.

"Who are these people?" he asked.

"Carter, this is Percy, Piper, Nico and Annabeth. They helped me escape from the demons. I'll explain on the way back to the hotel," she turned to us. "This is Carter, my boyfriend."

We all said hi to Carter, and then we continued on our way. Zia explained to Carter what had happened and what we had told her. Carter didn't seem to trust us very much, but then again, we didn't really trust him or Zia either.

"Is Sadie ok?" Zia asked Carter, after she had finished explaining.

Carter nodded. "She's beating herself up for leaving you, but apart from that she's fine."

Zia sighed in relief. "She did the right thing, she shouldn't be beating herself up over it."

We stopped outside a building.

"Is this the hotel?" Annabeth asked.

Zia and Carter nodded.

We entered the building and looked around. Nico frowned. "Someone has died here recently," he said, "there's an aura of death in this place."

Annabeth, Piper and I exchanged worried looks, while Carter gave Nico a confused frown and Zia looked to us for an explanation. We ignored their confusion and asked them what room they were staying in. They led us up the stairs to the room and opened the door.

"Zia!" cried a female voice. Suddenly a girl, who was also wearing linen pyjamas, along with combat boots came into view. Her hair was blonde, streaked with a fiery shade of orange. She hugged Zia. "Gods, Zia, I'm so sorry! I shouldn't of left you, they could have killed you, or worse!"

"You did the right thing Sadie," Zia said, "if you hadn't left me, you would have been taken too, and you would never have been able to warn Carter or Walt that the hotel may be attacked."

So _this_ was Sadie. She looked over Zia's shoulder at us.

"Who are they?" she asked.

"They helped me escape," Zia replied.

Another guy entered the room. Something about him seemed...different. I could feel a powerful aura coming from him, that was almost...godly. He looked at us, and his expression turned from worried to angry. His hands clenched into fists.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

"I'm Percy-" I started.

"Not you, _him_," he interrupted, glaring directly at Nico.

Nico was glaring back, his expression equally angry. It was as though the two of them were having a staring contest. Nico gripped the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it at a moments notice.

"What deal have you made with Gaia?" he said, ignoring the question.

"Nico," Annabeth said, trying to calm him down, "he's not necessarily in league with Gaia-"

"He has an aura of death, Annabeth," Nico interrupted, "that's what I sensed downstairs-that can only mean one thing." He turned back to the guy. "Why has Gaia allowed you to walk through the doors of death? What's in it for you? And what have you done to our friend? Where is she?"

"The _Greek_ earth goddess?" the boy asked, "Why would I make a deal with _her_? What reason would I have to walk through the doors of death? I _am_ death."

"You're not Thanatos," I said, now confused, "I've met him, and you're nothing like him!"

Nico, however, was now staring at the guy with realization etched across his face.

"Of course," he breathed, "why didn't I see it before? Father warned me there may be other deities...but I never thought..." he looked at the guy, "you're Anubis, aren't you? The Egyptian god of death and funeral rites."

"I am his host," the guy replied, "Walt Stone. You, I'm guessing, are Hades's son. Although, I am rather surprised-I was told the big three made an oath not to have kids."

"I was born before the oath was made," Nico informed him, "I was imprisoned inside the Lotus Casino for just over sixty years."

"The Lotus Casino?" Walt asked curiously, "I've heard of that place-they say once you go in, you never age, and you never want to leave."

"It's true-" Nico began, but Piper interrupted him.

"Can somebody _please_ tell me what's going on?"

Just then, there was a loud _CRASH_ from the market outside, and the sounds of people screaming. We ran to the window and looked out. There were monsters and a variety of other creatures trampling the stalls and wreaking havoc.

"_Styx_," Annabeth cursed, "how will we get out of here with that lot just outside our door?"

"Look on the bright side," Nico said, "at least they're not in the hotel."

There was another _CRASH_, and the screams could now be heard coming from downstairs in the reception area. I glared at Nico for speaking too soon. He shrugged back.

"Barricade the door!" Zia cried, and we all helped her pile furniture up against it.

"We need to get out of here, _now!"_ Carter yelled over the noise.

"Where's Sherlock?" Nico asked him.

"Sherlock? Oh, you mean your friend! She's just through there." He pointed at the door Walt had come through.

Nico turned to us. "I can shadow-travel with her back to the ship, and get Leo to come and collect you guys."

I nodded. "Go. Hurry-we won't be able to hold off this many for long."

He nodded and dashed into the other room.

I turned to face the door, and drew my sword. Annabeth and Piper took out their daggers, Carter pulled a strange, curved sword out from his bag, Sadie and Zia each took a staff out of their own bags, and Zia conjured up a ball of fire. The door shook on its hinges as something heavy slammed against it.

_BANG!_

The barricade shifted slightly, but remained where it was.

_BANG!_

A chair scraped across a few inches of floor, making a squealing noise that set my teeth on edge.

_BANG!_

The mass of furniture shook, emitting loud creaks and groans.

_CRASH!_

The whole thing came tumbling down and the door flew open. Creatures and monsters of all kind flooded into the room and surrounded us. Another figure stepped into the doorway, looking extremely smug.

"Did you miss me, _Perseus Jackson_?" he asked.

"Not really," I replied, gripping my sword tightly, "I wish you had stayed dead for longer, _Dr Thorn_."

* * *

**Ooohh...Cliffhanger! What will happen next?**

**Please review!**


	16. Demigods?

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own PJO or KC.**

**Hi! I'm back!**

**Ok, so I guess there isn't really much of an excuse as to why I haven't updated in a month (to the day), so I won't try to excuse myself…**

**Unless of course, the fact I had a lot of revision to do counts.**

**And it snowed.**

**A bit.**

**(For full details on the more exciting points of my life, see my profile)**

**Congratulations everyone! You survived the apocalypse!**

**Although apparently they got the wrong year, and it's this year instead.**

**Lol.**

**Oh well.**

**I noticed after posting the last chapter, that in my hurry to post it before the lack-of-apocalypse (and before I went to see Rise of the Guardians (which by the way is an amazing movie)), I forgot to reply to my reviews! Sooo…**

**For last time…**

**Thank you to ****_Skydecarte_**** for following my story and favouriting me and the story! And thank you to the following people for reviewing:**

**_Red:_**** You're right-dangerous minds certainly do think alike! And don't worry, you didn't sound whiny, superior or arrogant in any of your reviews, and I appreciate them as much as I appreciate every other review that comes in, so don't worry! Thanks for reviewing, once again!**

**_Skydecarte:_**** Thanks for the feedback! And I also agree with the other reviewers-I'm attempting to work on the detail and the pace, although this is proving extremely difficult…in particular, the pace is rather difficult to slow down, especially at this point as, within a few chapters, I have an idea for the ending…and nothing in between. And thank you! J**

**_Guest:_**** Yeah, I think I may have failed at that…sorry L**

**_Fanwriter1997:_**** Again, I think I may have failed at that…I'll try to write faster, but no promises! Also, as strange as this may seem, I already tried reading that fanfiction not long before you posted the review, and it was great-thanks for the recommendation, though-are there any others you would recommend?**

**_Fanwriter1997 (the second review):_**** Yeah, like I said… I suck at updating on time…sorry**

**For this time…**

**Thank you to ****_Yami Princess_**** and ****_stories-of-magic_**** for favouriting my story, and thank you to ****_H3artOfS0ul_****, ****_Yami Princess_**** and ****_stories-of-magic_**** for following it! And thank you to the following people for reviewing:**

**_Guest:_**** Correctissimo! And thank you for guessing!**

**_Fanwriter1997:_**** I'll go with the thank you option…I hope you haven't gone too insane, and, well…I apologize in advance…**

**_H3artOfS0ul:_**** Yeah, as I've said before, I am aware of the rushing…sorry about that! I ****_will_**** get round to editing this whole story sometime…but in the meantime, bear with me please! And also, thank you! It's nice to know that I'm beginning(ish) to get the hang of keeping a good pace J**

**_Stories-of-magic:_**** Thank you!**

* * *

Chapter 16-Demigods?

Carter's POV

Ok, quick recap.

Me, my girlfriend, my sister and her boyfriend go on a mission, rescue a strange, unconscious girl, then my girlfriend is kidnapped, then a bunch of strange American kids, who just so happen to be friends of the unconscious girl, help Zia escape. Then, things start getting weird- Walt and one of the American kids have a staring contest (if looks could kill, they would both be very dead), and then suddenly start talking about Greek gods. And then we get attacked by a bunch of demons, some other weird creatures, and a French guy called Dr Thorn who appears to be the enemy of the American guy, whose name was apparently Percy. Not to mention the other American guy appears to have run off somewhere with the unconscious girl. Confused? I know I am.

So, me, Sadie, Zia, Walt and the three remaining American kids-Percy and two girls named Piper and Annabeth-were now fighting for our lives, waiting for a lift from some guy called Leo. We were vastly outnumbered, but despite that we seemed to be doing quite well. I fought using my _kopesh_, Sadie could be heard yelling divine words, Zia was throwing balls of fire left, right and centre, Walt fought using his bare hands, turning enemies to dust with a single touch, Piper and Annabeth both used strange, bronze-colored daggers that turned their victims to dust, and Percy used a sword of a similar type. He seemed to be trying to break through the ranks of the demons to get to Dr Thorn.

_Duck! _ Horus said in my head. I did as I was told, and the sword of a snake-legged lady slashed the air above my head. I swung my _kopesh_, and pretty soon she was a pile of dust.

_Thanks_, I thought.

Another snake-legged lady swung her sword at me. I parried the blow, and then delivered one of my own. She blocked, and then twisted her blade. I felt a pain in my wrist, and I let go of my _kopesh_, which then clattered to the ground.

_Ooh, I remember when I had a duel with Ares one time… _Horus said, thoughtfully, _he used that very same disarming technique…very Greek, but effective all the same…_

_Not helping!_ I mentally yelled at him, dodging the snake-woman's next strike. I tried to think what kind of magic would be best for this situation, but even as I did so, the woman suddenly turned grey, and crumbled, turning to ashes.

Walt stood behind where the lady had just stood. He passed me my weapon.

"Thanks," I said.

"Try not to drop it next time," he grinned.

I looked round the room, to see that the battle was over. Nobody had suffered any injuries, save a few small scratches. Then I realized that the battle wasn't quite over-Dr Thorn was still standing in the doorway, looking at us almost lazily.

"Very well done," he said, "that was certainly entertaining to watch. It was a pity none of you were killed, but then again, that means more fun for me."

Suddenly his form seemed to change, and before I had time to react, he had transformed into some form of scorpion-lion hybrid.

"Take cover!" Percy yelled, and we crouched behind various pieces of furniture as black projectiles flew over our heads. Me, Percy, Walt and Annabeth all ended up crouching behind the same sofa.

"What the hell _is_ that?" I asked.

"Manticore," Annabeth replied, "part lion, part scorpion, and not the easiest of monsters to kill."

"But aren't manticores from _Greek_ myths?"

"They are," Walt said, "and I'll explain everything later. For now, I think it's easiest to say that this is what Horus was referring to."

"What _who_ was referring to?" Percy asked.

"Never mind that, we need a plan." Walt turned to Annabeth. "Got any ideas, daughter of Athena?"

_Athena? Isn't that a Greek goddess?_

Annabeth nodded. "Assuming Leo doesn't accidentally crash into the building _again_, we'll have to kill Thorn the old-fashioned way-with weapons, from ground level. Therefore, I think the best way is that somebody distracts him from the front, somebody gets rid of the tail, and somebody somehow kills him."

It sounded like a good plan, but before we could try it out, Sadie's voice yelled from our right _"Ha-di!"_

Dr Thorn _exploded_. Literally. He, like the other strange creatures like him, turned to dust when he was killed, so the whole room, us included, ended up being covered in a light layer of the stuff. We slowly emerged from our various hiding places, and observed the damage to the hotel room caused by the battle.

"Do you have the money to pay the hotel owner compensation for all this?" Piper asked.

"Nope," Zia replied.

Percy looked out the window and grinned. "Well, it's a good thing our ride is here then!"

The end of a rope ladder was dangling just outside the window, and the drone of a large engine could be heard high above the building. I walked to the window, opened it, stuck my head out, looked up and stared in amazement. High above us was a massive ship floating in mid air...and none of the mortals were giving any sign that they could see it!

"I think we'd better go first," Percy said, referring to himself, Annabeth and Piper, "they know us."

I nodded and stood aside so that they could climb out the window. Percy went first, then Annabeth, then Piper, then Walt, Sadie and Zia. I went last.

When we were all on the ship, the ship took off, flying higher up into the clouds.

"Okay, would somebody like to explain what the Hades is going on here," asked a blonde dude, "who are these people?"

"My name's Carter Kane, this is Walt Stone, Zia Rashid and my sister, Sadie Kane," I informed him, "and what are your names?"

"Well it sounds like you've already met Percy, Annabeth, Piper and Nico," said a girl with red hair, "I'm Rachel Dare, and this is-_di imortales!_ Leo, we've got company!"

We all looked at where she was pointing, and saw what looked like another flying boat. A guy who looked like a Latino Santa's elf, who I guessed was Leo, muttered something under his breath that sounded like _'sticks'_, but couldn't be, because he said it like a curse.

"Any chance that they're friendly?" he asked, though clearly not really considering the possibility.

As though in answer to his question, there was a bright flash, and a red ball of light flew towards us with astonishing speed. A spell.

Sadie raised her hand and yelled _"Drowah!"_

A golden hieroglyph formed in the air between the ship and the ball of light, creating an invisible boundary, which the ball of light then ricocheted off.

"Leo, get us out of here!" yelled the blonde dude.

Leo was already behind the ship's wheel. "What d'you think I'm doing, Jason?" he yelled back. He pulled a lever and the ship lurched forward. He turned the ship away from the attackers, and then pulled another lever. The ship accelerated suddenly, and the gap between us and the other ship got larger.

It was then that I got a proper look at the ship. It was an Egyptian reed-boat, and standing at the head was Vladimir Menshikov and Setne. I turned to Walt, Sadie and Zia. They had also noticed.

"Not good," Zia muttered.

"_'Not good'_ is an understatement," Sadie said.

"Not good," echoed a female voice from behind us. "Nope, nope, nope, Page twenty-two, synonyms of 'bad': abominable, amiss, beastly, cruddy, defective, dissatisfactory, imperfect, not good. Nope, nope, nope, Ella will go below deck now."

We turned to see what looked like a cross between a bird and a woman flutter down some steps that I guess led, as she had said, below deck. She passed someone on the stairs, who then continued up to join us on the deck. It was Nico.

"Don't mind Ella," he said, "According to Percy, Frank and Hazel, apparently she reads a lot, and memorizes everything she reads. So don't be too worried if she starts talking gibberish." He paused and looked at the boat that was pursuing us. He frowned. "What's going on?"

"We're being chased by two rogue magicians whose souls should have been devoured by Amit a _long_ time ago." Zia said, glaring at the other ship with such intensity I was surprised it didn't spontaneously combust.

The enemy boat was steadily falling further and further behind. But just as we thought we'd managed to outrun (or out-fly) them, the boat suddenly sped up to a speed that was even faster than what I guessed this ship's maximum speed was. Menshikov and Setne were using magic to power their boat-there was no way we could outrun them now!

"They're gaining on us!" yelled Piper, "Leo, we need to go faster!"

"This is as fast as she flies!" he yelled.

"What do we do?" Zia asked, looking worried. "We can't possibly fight all those demons, those monsters _and_ Menshikov _and_ Setne all at once! And we can't outrun them either!"

"We go somewhere that they won't follow us." Walt answered.

"Where would that be?" Percy asked, having listened in to our conversation.

I exchanged a look with Walt. Was he thinking of...

"The first Nome," I muttered, and then yelled "Leo, can you keep ahead of them for long enough to get to Cairo airport?!"

"Why?!"

"Never mind_ why_, can you do it?!"

"Maybe...if someone gives Festus some Tabasco sauce..."

"If someone gives _who_ some Tabasco sauce?! And how's Tabasco sauce going to help?!"

Piper was already dashing to the dragon figurehead, which I had only just noticed, holding a bottle of the sauce.

"Leo, how exactly am I supposed to get it in his mouth?!" she yelled.

"Piper, he's an _automaton!_ You don't make him drink the stuff, you put it in the fuel reserves!" Leo yelled back.

"How am I supposed to know that?!"

"Um, guys-" a dark skinned girl started to say.

"I would've thought it would be obvious, Beauty Queen!" Leo yelled at Piper.

_"Guys-"_

"To a son of _Hephaestus_, maybe...and don't call me _'Beauty Queen'_!" Piper yelled back.

_"GUYS!"_

"What is it, Hazel?!" Leo and Piper both yelled, and then winced. "Um, sorry, didn't mean to yell..." There were several sniggers among the rest of the crew.

"It may interest you to know that we are _about to be boarded!_" Hazel glared at the pair of them. "It may be a good idea to bickering like two-year-olds and _hurry up with whatever you're going to do to stop it!_"

That sobered everyone up, and everyone got to work, grabbing weapons, passing bottles of oil and Tabasco sauce to Piper, who kept rushing below decks to empty them into the fuel reserve, and telling a small girl with blonde hair to get below decks, to safety. It surprised me that someone so young would be with them on such a dangerous journey-she looked no older than ten years old. But despite the efforts of the crew, the reed boat just kept getting closer and closer.

"We can't keep this up for much longer!" Leo yelled. "We're going to be boarded!"

"Surely there's some way of avoiding it!" Zia reasoned.

"There is!" cried the young blonde girl, and with that she yelled across the closing gap, "hey, ice-cream man!"

"I _told_ you he looks like an evil Russian ice-cream man," Sadie muttered to me.

"_Shut up_," I muttered back.

Menshikov looked bewildered for a second, and then yelled back in a confused, heavily accented voice "Are you talking to me, child?"

"Yes, you! You work for uh...Jimbob, do you not?"

"Jimbob? Who are you talking about child?"

"Ditto." Piper murmured.

"Jimbob! The great and mighty Jimbob, the uh...evil and most powerful, the destroyer of all!" she replied.

"Jenny, what are you talking about?" Jason whispered.

"Trust me," she whispered back.

"I work for Gaia, not this...Jimbob..." Menshikov said, clearly extremely confused. His concentration faltered. The reed boat lost speed dramatically.

Jenny grinned widely. "Tell Gaia I said hi!" she called after them.

"That girl is crazy," I muttered.

"Not crazy," Nico murmured to me, "clever, but not crazy." he glared at the reed-boat as it steadily fell behind. "I don't think anyone else would have thought of talking for time and distracting him like that."

"Why is she even here?" Zia asked, "she's so young, and clearly this journey has proven extremely dangerous."

"Jenny and I were kind of picked up on the way," Nico answered, "we were both imprisoned at one of Gaia's secret bases. We were rescued."

"Aren't the others worried that you might be a...well, a spy for this Gaia person?" Sadie asked.

"Gods no, they already knew me, and Jenny is Sherlock's long-lost younger sister. Come to think of it, it's a good thing Jenny doesn't know what that guy did to her sister, otherwise she would have attacked him on sight, whether she had weapons or not, and probably get herself killed in the process."

"How do you know about what Menshikov did to that girl?" Zia asked, confused.

"Demigod dreams are always real," he replied, as though it explained everything. It took me a second to realize what he meant.

"You _saw_ what Menshikov did to her?" Zia said, appalled, "oh gods, I'm so sorry, that must have been _awful_..."

"What must have been awful?" asked a cheerful voice from behind Nico. Jenny.

"Um, nothing," Nico stammered, "uh, where did you come from?"

"Never mind that," she said, to our relief letting the subject drop, "I have a question for these people." She gestured towards myself, Sadie, Walt and Zia. "What was with all the hieroglyph-y stuff?"

"Ah," Walt said slowly, "thanks for reminding me about that." He turned to Nico. "Could you get everyone's attention? I do believe we've got a bit of explaining to do."

Nico nodded, and then yelled, "guys! Anu- I mean, Walt here wants to, uh, _explain_ something to us, so, do you guys mind paying attention for a couple of seconds..."

Everyone turned to look at us. Walt looked round and then, finally, said, "First, can I get something straight-is everyone on this ship a demigod?"

"Almost everyone," the blonde dude, whose name I remembered was Jason, answered. "Grover's a satyr, Ella's a harpy, Tyson is a Cyclopes...talking of which, where _is_ Tyson...sorry, getting distracted, um...oh yes, and Rachel is a clear-sighted mortal. Oh, and I almost forgot, she's also the Oracle."

"Right..." Walt said, ignoring Sadie, Zia and I's muttered words of confusion. "So, what would you say if I were to tell you that, on top of the gods you already know of, the Egyptian gods are real?"

"What?" several people said. Nico said nothing, as though he had expected Walt to say this. Another voice, which I believe belonged to Percy, groaned _"Not more gods!"_

A few people laughed. Horus said in my head _Hey! I take that as a personal insult!_

"Probably not the best thing to say in the presence of a god, Percy!" called Nico.

"We're in the presence of a god?" Leo asked, looking around for an unfamiliar face.

"You might say that," Walt answered, smiling slightly. "I am the host of Anubis, the Egyptian god of death and funeral rites."

"Hang on," Sadie interrupted, "Walt, what do you mean _'on top of the gods you already know of'_? Are there more gods?"

I felt a shiver run down my spine, as I began to remember something that I had forgotten long ago and dismissed as unimportant.

_"Manhattan has other problems..."_ I said slowly, looking meaningfully at Sadie.

_"...Other gods."_ she finished.

Those were the words Amos had said to us when we first arrived at Brooklyn and we'd asked him about magicians living in Manhattan. But that wasn't all. Thoughts were travelling through my head at _way_ over a thousand miles an hour, and I was beginning to piece together the puzzle pieces of a much bigger picture...

After Nico and Walt had finished their staring contest, back at the hotel, Walt had said that Nico was Hades's son. Hades was the Greek god of the underworld. When Walt had said _'I am death'_, Percy had said _'you're not Thanatos'_, who was the Greek god of death. Horus, when I had been disarmed back at the hotel, had mentioned something about having that disarming technique used against him by _Ares_, who was the Greek god of war. Walt had called Annabeth _'daughter of Athena'_-the Greek goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. Annabeth had said that Dr Thorn was the manticore, which was also from Greek myths. People kept talking about someone called _'Gaia'_, who I remembered was the Greek earth goddess, and then there was that constant mention of a single word: _'demigod'_.

"It's the _Greek_ gods, isn't it?" I asked Walt. "That's why magicians aren't supposed to go to Manhattan, isn't it? Because that's where they're based. And that's what you guys are," I gestured towards the ship's crew, "the Greek gods keep having kids with mortals, like they did in the myths, and the results are people like you. Demigods."

Walt nodded. "The Greek gods and their Roman forms are very much alive today. Ancient laws say that we should never meet, but now that we have, we have to work together."

"Meet," Rachel muttered, and then recited what sounded like a line from a poem. "_'Two worlds shall meet at civilization's heart,'_"

"The third line of the prophecy..." Annabeth breathed.

"But how is this the heart of civilization?" Piper asked.

"Uh, Egypt is the first Nome if that helps..." Zia said, clearly confused. I couldn't blame her-I was too.

"The first_ gnome_?" Percy asked. "As in, the little statues of happy men that people have in their gardens?"

"No, as in a region! You're worse than Carter!" Zia exclaimed.

"I have to say you're wrong there, Zia," Sadie sighed, "Carter is just as bad-he made that exact same mistake when we first arrived in the twenty-first Nome."

"Hey!" I objected, "it's an easy mistake to make!"

"_Anyway_," Walt said, glaring at the three of us, "as Zia was saying, Egypt is the first Nome. There are three-hundred-and-sixty in the world-Egypt is the first and the greatest. Thus explaining the line from your prophecy. What, may I ask, was the full thing?"

Rachel Dare was about to answer, when a massive vortex of sand appeared in the sky-it was a portal, the size of which I had only seen once before-when Sadie transported the red pyramid to Washington DC. That wasn't the problem though-the problem was, we heading straight for it.

"Not again..." Annabeth and Jenny moaned.

"Leo, turn the ship around!" Walt yelled.

No one on the ship had any doubt what it was-Menshikov had failed to catch us by chasing us, so he was going to catch us by portal instead.

The ship turned slowly away from the portal, but it was no use. We hit the portal side on, and were sent sailing through darkness and sand, knowing that Menshikov, Setne, and possibly even Gaia would be waiting at the other side.

We all gripped our weapons. We weren't going down without a fight.

The sand cleared, and what I saw surprised me so much I almost dropped my _kopesh. _ In front of us was the last thing I ever expected to see. Or more specifically, the last _person_.

* * *

**_Ha-di_****-destroy**

**_Drowah_****-boundary**

**_Fanwriter1997:_**** If you didn't realize before, now you know why I apologized…**

**So, another cliffhanger! Who do you think it is? Cookies to those who guess…**


	17. Apologies

Dear readers,

I have three things to be sorry for-  
1) I'm sorry for the lack of updates.  
2) I'm sorry if any of you saw that I had updated, got all excited, only to discover that I hadn't _actually_ written another chapter.  
3) I'm sorry, but I won't be updating any time soon.

I'm afraid that I am having troubles writing this story at the moment. The main reason being because I have no longer have any idea where this story is going. I used to have the ending all planned out, but now I'm getting lots of alternative ideas, some of which I like, but won't work due to hints I have left in previous chapters, and some things that I planned and left hints for I no longer think are such good ideas. I need to think about how I'm going to finish this story, if there's going to be a sequel, and what will happen. I need a plan, and in order to construct this plan, I need time to think. So, over the past few weeks, I've been thinking about this little dilemma. Ideas have sprung to mind, but nothing that I really think may be the solution. Therefore, I have realized that I must try something different-I have decided to take a break from writing this story. I know from experience, that when I'm not trying to do something that I'm finding really hard, it suddenly becomes easier. I also know from experience, that taking a break from something, and then trying again later, can also help. That is why I am doing this. I'm really sorry about this, although I would like to make this clear-I am going to finish this story. It may take me a long time, but I will do it.

In the mean time, to take my mind off this story, I will probably start a new one about something completely different. I've got loads on the brain, and I'm not entirely sure which one to do yet, but I think I will figure it out and post the first chapter soon! Keep an eye out on my profile-I will give a small amount of warning before I release it!

Finally, I apologize for doing this, especially after the cliffhanger from the last chapter.

Yours truly,  
MysteriousSherlock


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